A Big Problem
by Vaguely Defined Entity
Summary: A certain blond-haired boy wanted to become a ninja, but instead became a multi-tailed demonic fox bigger than a building. Great power and great responsibility, sure, but usually the power isn't so hard to turn off, or so inconvenient in everyday life...
1. A Big Problem

A Big Problem

[Academy]

"FAIL."

Of course he had. He'd already done so more than once before. A certain downtrodden, but otherwise familiar-looking blond left the testing room, leaving behind the scarred instructor.

He was simply unable to perform a jutsu. _Any_ jutsu, or at least any that used chakra. He could focus on trying to form the chakra to make the techniques, but whenever he tried, it just didn't work. Like the chakra was unstable, somehow. Last year, he had a sort-of friend in a similar situation, but he had since left the academy, presumably having given up. Now he was the only one with the dubious distinction, watching his more successful classmates finishing their practical ninjutsu exams, from the stuck-up-but-actually-effective Sasuke, to the obsessive-but-smart Sakura, to the less-active-than-the-bed-he-sleeps-on-but-also-really-smart Shikamaru.

He envied them, but he wasn't done. The blond boy Konoha knew as Naruto Uzumaki wasn't going to quit now. His pride just wouldn't let him. Even if it seemed like everyone else was destined to be a better ninja, that pride wouldn't let him give up. No, he was certain he could be, _would_ be more than he was, more than they were. More than they could be.

[Outside]

It wasn't much later in the day. One of the instructors, a silver-haired chunin by the name of Mizuki, had found the blond outside, furiously running through hand signs while trying to mould his strangely disrupted chakra.

"You know, it's not strictly a _requirement_ that you be able to perform jutsu to become a ninja," the silver-haired instructor mentioned, gaining the blond boy's attention immediately.

"It's not?" he asked, his hopes rising.

"You remember Lee from last year? _He_ couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu, either, and he'll never be able to," Mizuki explained. "He graduated and became a genin last year," the instructor finished with a reassuring smile.

"He did? He became a ninja?" He did indeed remember Lee, or Rock Lee. As the other person in class that was unable to use jutsu, he was quite memorable. Even if not for that quasi-kinship, his semi-friend's impressive eyebrows would've made him hard to forget. But reminiscing on his fellow jutsu-less former classmate, the genin-hopeful focused on the implications. "How? How did he graduate? How can I graduate without jutsu?"

"Rock Lee sufficiently impressed jounin Might Guy. Guy then took him under his wing and made him his apprentice." _This_ was something new to the red-orange-clad genin hopeful. It was his chance, his chance to become a ninja _directly_, without worrying about the exam! Wait, did that mean he could've skipped that tedious written section, too? Well, he'd already done it, so no sense crying about it. Also, there were ninjas with wings? Sometimes idioms were lost on the blond boy. "In fact, I know of a jounin who you could impress into becoming your sensei with a certain task," Mizuki stated.

That was it. Whatever the instructor said from here on would be essentially taken as truth by the blond, ignoring any other oddities such as why Iruka-sensei had never mentioned this possibility, and his vague gut feelings about the silver-haired man. He was too desperate to trust vague feelings now. "Who? How?"

"The jounin wishes to remain anonymous for now, until the task is completed," the instructor said, slightly calming the energetic youth. "As to the task itself..."

[In the Hokage's tower]

That night, the blond crept through the Hokage's tower-like residence carefully, seeking out the Scroll of Seals, an extraordinarily large scroll he had seen there before. Successfully taking it would be proof to his mysterious would-be jounin-sensei that he could be a successful ninja! Though he wasn't normally one to get really worked up all the time, the sheer excitement he felt at the prospect would have him jumping up and down if not for the fact that he was currently trying to be stealthy. He took pride in his ability to be stealthy, and he didn't want to mess up the ninja skills he _was_ good at when trying to make up for those he lacked. He also wondered if maybe being stealthy and still while excessively excited was specifically part of the test

The Hokage, to the blond's fortune, seemed to be out at the moment. He'd been managed to avoid the few live-in workers there, as he sought out the room where the scroll he sought was kept.

Soon enough, he had the rather absurdly-sized roll of paper (seriously, would it have killed the Hokages past or present to start "the Scroll of Seals, Volume 2"?) and was making his way out with it. As far as he could tell, he was completely undetected.

[Outskirts of Konoha]

On the outskirts of Konoha, a blond boy sat in the moonlight with the sizeable Scroll of Seals partially unfurled, waiting near some hideout for Mizuki and the yet-unnamed jounin. The blond studied the various writings of the scroll, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, there would be a jutsu he could actually use. The first one, which sounded like a fun jutsu to instantly make a personal army, sadly did not work for the boy.

Several others didn't seem like jutsu he'd want to use even if he was capable of it. He wasn't that interested in human sacrifice, of either himself or someone nearby, which cut out the potential list considerably. Even so, he supposed he wouldn't have been able to learn these more complex jutsu either, given his failure to use relatively simple jutsu up to then.

Soon enough, his musings were interrupted, hopefully by his examiners.

"Naruto!" shouted an irate academy instructor. Iruka, the blond recognized. He was most definitely not Mizuki nor, as far as the blond boy knew, a jounin. Maybe he'd been promoted? Or maybe he'd been taken Mizuki's place as his jounin's go-between?

"Oh, hello, Iruka-sensei," replied the indicated blond, turning to his favorite instructor, though Mizuki had been making headway recently with this newest opportunity. "I managed to get the scroll!" Then the would-be ninja began to notice his sensei's tone of voice and general body language. They certainly weren't congratulatory. Indeed, few would attribute them to a proud sensei. His own face began to betray a hint of fear and confusion, and his good mood began to dip a bit.

[Outskirts of Konoha]

"What are you doing!?" the chunin yelled. He was hoping Mizuki had been wrong when he was informed of his blond student's thievery, but the instructor saw him sitting the dangerous scroll now. "You've stolen an _incredibly dangerous item_, and now the entire town is up in alarm looking for you!"

"What!? I was just doing what Mizuki-sensei said!" responded Naruto, his voice with the same hint of fear and confusion of his face.

"What... Mizuki said?" The chunin's face began to show confusion as well.

"He said that if I could sneak into the Hokage's tower, take this big scroll, and escape to here with it, I'd get to learn to be a ninja from a jounin!"

Iruka was trying to...get through the implications of this. Iruka had, in fact, been informed earlier _by Mizuki_ that Naruto had stolen the scroll. Now the blond was seemingly trying to lie to him? Iruka hadn't known the blond boy to be particularly deceptive in the years he'd known him, but the alternative...was that...that Mizuki had lied to him? Had Mizuki used Naruto to steal the scroll? Was his childhood friend and co-instructor of many years was a _traitor_?

No! Iruka wanted to hit himself. Standard transformation was an academy-level jutsu. He knew that; he was an academy instructor himself! It didn't take particular skill to fool an academy student with one. Most any ninja, from Konoha or not, could've transformed to look like Mizuki and use his emotionally vulnerable student to steal important and dangerous secrets from Konoha.

"Naruto, what have you done!?" yelled another voice the indicated blond and the scarred instructor recognized. This was Mizuki now, or if not, was under a good enough transformation that Iruka couldn't tell the difference.

"M-Mizuki-sensei!" stuttered the blond slightly. "You've got to tell him! I was supposed to take this scroll to pass!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the newly-arrived silver-haired instructor replied, sounding even more irate as his co-worker. "Is this some kind of story you're weaving to get away with stealing?"

"Iruka, you've got to believe me! He talked to me outside after I failed the test!" the boy pleaded with his other instructor. "He said how Rock Lee became a ninja by impressing a winged jounin!"

"...What?" was all that the pony-tailed instructor could respond.

"Naruto," has co-instructor Mizuki began in a somewhat mocking tone, "to 'take someone under your wing' doesn't mean the person literally has wings..." Iruka turned to him, a little suspicious.

"Mizuki?" he began. "Naruto didn't say anything about anyone taking anyone else under their wing."

[Outskirts of Konoha]

A mistake. The silver-haired instructor went into damage control. "I-I overheard the original conversation," he explained, silently cursing when he realized that he had just made his situation _much_ worse in his attempt to fix it. Why didn't he just say he had guessed it was the idiom? No, why did he think to correct the boy's misunderstanding now!? Why was Iruka even here!? He had to tell him to seem legitimate, but he really, _really_ had expected to be the first to find the wayward blond.

"You overheard him talking with someone impersonating you?" Iruka questioned, calm at first, but sounding more and more uncertain. "And you didn't think to stop it? Or report it?" Dammit. He was supposed to be able to off the little demon playing at ninja, take the scroll, and be on his merry way!

Now, though it was falling apart, and soon he'd be dealing with a chunin in combat. Not that he held his co-worker and admittedly once-friend up as a standard of ninja skill, but he was certainly no jutsu-less academy student. He had to act now, before the other instructor worked up the nerve. So, he took out a brace of shuriken and sent them flying.

However, Iruka Umino wasn't a chunin for nothing, and he quickly jumped back to avoid the sudden attack. Mizuki considered the situation. If the battle picked up now, it could be two-on-one, if the blond attacked back. Those weren't odds he wanted, the boy wasn't experienced, and he wanted to kill the demon anyway. No time left to think, he had to act now.

He quickly grabbed out an already-loose giant shuriken and let it fly at the failed academy student, hoping to remove him from the fight immediately. The boy didn't have the years of experience of his fellow instructor, and was about to be slain by the spinning metal weapon.

If not for that fellow instructor.

[Outskirts of Konoha]

The sickening sound of one of the sharp metal blades of the giant shuriken burying itself in his favorite instructor and indeed one of the few people he could call a friend shook the boy to the core. "I-I-Iruka?" he barely got out. About twenty feet away from where he had been starting to stand with the scroll, Iruka had jumped between himself and the traitor's weapon. He started to lose his balance, falling down onto his hands, his thoughts completely awry.

This was wrong. Iruka didn't get hurt. This was _wrong_. Iruka never got hurt, not really, and not for him. In some absolute universal way, the blond knew that what had just happened was **wrong**. But that didn't change reality. He still saw Iruka's back, a metal blade piercing slightly through a bit on the side, and blood running down his vest.

He hardly even heard the traitor's response to the situation. "I don't understand why you'd want to protect him, Iruka," Mizuki said with a smug tone and a smirk. "After all, didn't he murder your parents? He's the...the...he's...he..." The blond didn't even notice how the traitor didn't finish his sentence, or how his smirk fell into a slack jaw, or how his eyes widened in their sockets.

[Hokage's Office]

The Hokage had thought something was amiss when he sensed the blond academy student sneaking through his residence. He'd instructed those present to avoid alerting him that they were aware of his presence, to see what he would do. It was abnormal for the boy to do something like this, so Hiruzen Sarutobi suspected there was another player in this scheme.

As such, he sent several ANBU agents to discretely follow the boy and figure out who was behind the scheme, while he observed from the crystal ball in his office, raising the alarm in the village after a bit to match the expectations of the unseen agent. Eventually, the blond stopped in the forests outside of town, a proud look on his face, as the undetected ANBU began to discretely circle the area.

The boy then stopped to read the scroll, the proud look quickly becoming a frustrated one as he tried out various seals, to no avail. If the Hokage hadn't known how his poor chakra control prevented him from using jutsu, he might have been worried, but the unstable flow prevented him from molding any of the dangerous jutsu in the scroll.

He was alarmed at first when chunin and academy instructor Iruka Umino was the first to arrive, but thankfully, he was just chasing his student due to the alarm and genuine concern for the boy. He was again alarmed when chunin and academy instructor Mizuki arrived, and turned out to indeed be a traitor he was thankful Iruka hadn't been.

He saw his ANBU beginning to move in when Mizuki suddenly attacked twice in rapid succession, wounding the self-sacrificing Iruka, who would be getting a raise when all of this was over. It was time for the ANBU make the arrest and get the wounded teacher to a hospital after quick field patching, and none too soon, as the Hokage's stiff grip on the crystal ball betrayed his nerves through the incident.

And then, Hiruzen Sarutobi saw something else. Something that neither he nor anyone else in Konoha had _**ever**_ wanted to see again. The crystal ball cracked between the Hokage's anxiously crushing hands, and the God of Shinobi jumped as quickly as he could out of his office window. Still wearing his formal robes of office, he moved with his top speed, crossing town in a matter of seconds with chained body flickers, hoping against hope that he might stop what he saw.

[In Konoha]

The alarm raised in the village about the stolen scroll had the shinobi out searching and keeping alert, but nobody was expecting anything too major to come of it. Suddenly, though, everyone, shinobi or civilian, could feel something washing over the town. It was like a massive, overwhelming, horrifying, suffocating, and for some, worst of all, _familiar_ presence. An absurd level of chakra was flaring from somewhere on the edge of town, and radiating a killing intent that paralysed people throughout the village.

It was visible just over the trees. Illuminated in the moonlight, gigantic orange-red appendages were clearly visible over a mostly-concealed body. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, the very monster that twelve years ago had ravaged their town and slaughtered their families, was there, fully formed, within the walls of Konoha once again.

[Closer]

Hiruzen Sarutobi was on the scene as quickly as possible, summoning King Enma for whatever combat could be managed to push back the beast. Nearby, every single elite jounin or ANBU in the village was quickly gathering for the confrontation.

The beast was laying down, crushed trees beneath its body. The Hokage morbidly suspected that there were also crushed ANBU agents that hadn't been able to get out in time when it appeared, but that was a concern for later.

The fox's tails moved slowly, unlike the vicious thrashing they had displayed when it first attacked. It's eyes were half-closed, and its limbs spread out on the ground, not propping it up. Then the eyes caught sight of the old Hokage, and both opened fully. The beast's lips opened slightly, revealing horrifying, sharp teeth. The God of Shinobi prepared for battle.

But he wasn't prepared for what happened next, as the horrible killing intent suddenly subsided and the fox's massive jaw began to move.

"**O-o-old man? W-w-what's going on? W-what happened?**" it said with a deep, booming voice, its head turning and looking around. "**W-why are all t-these people here? A-and...why are you all so small?**"


	2. A Big Fox

A Big Fox

[Outskirts of Konoha]

_The Nine-Tails has broken free! The Nine-Tails is about to attack Konoha and kill us all! There's no Uzumaki left to seal it in! The Nine-Tails called me "old man"! The Nine-Tails...just...called me "old man?"_ The whirlwind that was Hiruzen Sarutobi's thoughts seemed to just freeze on that last note.

They were apparently frozen long enough for others to notice, too.

"**Old man?**" asked the giant fox again.

The Hokage forced himself to sound reassuring and a good deal more confident than he actually felt. "Naruto, everything's going to be alright, just stay calm." _Yes, calm down, Hiruzen. Whatever the situation, you're the Hokage, dammit, you don't get to panic. Even if you're facing the single most dangerous entity in the Elemental Nations. Which you may have just insulted to its face by calling it "Naruto"._ He didn't calm himself down particularly well.

The fox's facial features appeared to even out somewhat, though even the Professor didn't have a great deal of experience reading the feelings of tailed beast. As he examined, though, he began to see them, adjusting to the unusual features. Shock. Sadness. Fear. Anxiety. Betrayal. Traces of anger, but outweighed by far by the rest of the emotions. Despite the large teeth and slitted eyes, this was not the face of a rampaging beast, and the inaction thus far supported the conclusion. _Naruto's in there!_

Then, the fear he saw on the giant vulpine face suddenly spiked. "**Iruka-sensei! Old man, Iruka-sensei got hurt! I...I have to...**" Then the giant nine-tailed fox started moving, pushing itself up.

Hiruzen saw what was happening too late to stop it. "_No!_ Naruto, don't try to-" The gargantuan fox lifted itself up on its arms, and then rocked onto its hind legs, as if trying to stand on two feet. On two _human_ feet, which it didn't have.

The gigantic fox towered even further over everything for a moment as it was precariously balanced on its two rear legs, before it suddenly overbalanced and toppled backwards, landing back on the ground with massive crash and a tremendous cloud of dust. As the dust cleared, more of the forest was smashed beneath the giant body, along with part of the wall an arm had landed on. Fortunately, the shinobi in the area had been wary and had rapidly moved well clear of the giant fox.

The Hokage quickly jumped toward the new location of the beast's head. "Naruto Uzumaki, **do not move**," he commanded with the authority only the God of Shinobi could bring to bear in his voice. The beast immediately ceased attempts to right itself again and just lay on its back, staring at the man from its upturned perspective. _That settles it. Naruto-kun's in control of the body. The day the Nine-Tails follows my orders is the day I eat my hat._

"**But, Iruka-sensei?**" the transformed boy asked tentatively, it's body completely rigid due to the Hokage's command.

"Will be taken care of," he said, signalling a rather shaken medic-nin who had accompanied him to head back. Sure enough, he saw the medic carrying the grievously wounded instructor away. At first glance, the injury looked career-ending, but there was time later to determine that. Now, he had to handle this situation. "I need everyone but myself, Naruto and Tenzo to leave away from the immediate area," he commanded to the remaining ninja. He didn't want anyone possibly threatening around for this. He was dealing with a scared little boy. A scared little boy with the power and possibly the lack of control to level a small country, or a large one, given time.

After a few minutes, the rest besides the Hokage and the ANBU in the immediate area, including a few that were on top of the fox searching for crushed agents, had cleared out, and the Hokage made his intention known. "Okay, Naruto, there's something I have to tell you, but we're going to want to get you off your back. Now just roll to your left, then hold still again."

[Outskirts of Konoha]

A few tense and rather loud moments later, the blond-turned-redhead-and-body was laying on his stomach once again, all limbs extricated from whatever walls or newly formed trenches they were in. He lay there as still as possible, avoiding any sudden and possibly dangerous movements with his gigantic, unfamiliar limbs, including the multiple tails he had felt he had.

While he wasn't exactly calm and collected about his situation, his own fears were nothing compared to the colossal, oppressive terror he could feel beyond his own mind. Every man, woman and child in Konoha was in fear, fear for their homes, their families and their lives, and he could feel it, _oh could he feel it_.

And besides the sudden terror of an entire city, other myriad worries played over and over in his mind. Why was he suddenly huge like this? Was he going to be like this forever? Was he ever really a human? What would Iruka say to him if he saw him? What about Teuchi and Ayame? Why did he have tails? Was it _him_ everyone was afraid of?

"Naruto-kun, how are you feeling?" asked the old man, with a friendlier tone and a smile, though he could faintly feel fear behind it.

The indicated boy responded to the question though, if not very eloquently. "**Everyone's scared and I'm really big and I can't stand up and I feel really weird and I don't know why and I'm scared too and I want to change back,**" he explained as well as he could.

"Well, I think we can do something to change you back." _That_ was what the transformed blond was hoping to hear. The Hokage motioned for the one ANBU he'd called to remain, who wore a vague, cat-like mask. "Naruto, this is Tenzo, one of my most trusted operatives. He has a special power that I believe will be able to help you."

Tenzo, as he had been referred to earlier, approached the giant fox-formed boy. Though his expression was hidden behind a cat-like mask, the boy could still sense his fear, greater than that of the old man. "I need you to calm down and remain as still as you can," the masked man instructed.

Doing so as well as he could, the blond boy tried to relax. If he could just calm down, he could be back to normal. Everything would be okay, he'd be the slightly short boy with spiky blond hair, blue eyes, and whisker-like markings on his face, and everyone would stop being afraid of him. This was enough to get him at peace, even with all his questions.

The man's hand glowed with a strange light as he touched the the boy's transformed, fur-covered chest with some kind of sealing jutsu and then drew back, a trail of blue light leading from his hand to the place he had touched. Wooden totems sprang up around the gigantic body, and slowly but surely, the chakra forming the gigantic fox body began to recede.

[Outskirts of Konoha]

It took an hour to completely reseal the tailed beast's tremendous chakra, leaving the boy looking exhausted, but back in his normal form. Well, almost. His teeth looked sharper than the Hokage remembered, and his nails looked particularly untrimmed and dangerous. But at least the boy wasn't likely to crush the landscape with an errant twitch.

Worries of how the blond looked were put on hold for now, though. For his own safety and, Hiruzen had to admit, his own aversion to wanting to saddle the boy with this issue, he had put this off, but no longer. He deserved an explanation. By all rights, he should've had one long before anything like this happened, but life was never truly predictable.

"Now, Naruto, there is a lot to explain here, but I'll start with the most important part. Naruto Uzumaki, you are _not_ responsible for the attack 12 years ago. The blood of those that died then is in _no_ way on your hands, and do not let others lead you to believe otherwise." Happily, the rather unsettled expression on the boy relaxed at least somewhat in relief.

Seeing this, the Hokage continued his explanation. He explained that the boy was a jinchuriki, the power of human sacrifice, or a demon container. He said that the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox as sealed _inside_ of the boy, but the boy was _not_ himself the fox. The beast could not be killed, so the fourth Hokage instead sealed it in a newborn baby.

"Why me?" the newly-labelled jinchuriki asked rather reasonably.

Hiruzen measured his answer carefully. "I'm afraid I can't say why he sealed the fox in you in particular."

The third Hokage continued to explain to the boy as the stood in the forests on the outskirts. There were a few things he wanted to be sure the student was aware of. First, he was not the only jinchuriki. There were nine total tailed beasts, organized in power by number of tails, with the boy's Nine-Tails as the strongest. Each major village and one minor village had one or more of their members as jinchuriki to contain those beasts.

With the boy's questions now largely answered, he had to ask his own.

"Now, Naruto, I need to ask," he began. "When you...transformed into the fox, what did you feel?"

"Well, I like I said, I felt really big and scared and confused," the boy replied.

"Well, yes," he admitted, considering how to get at his question tactfully, though he'd store some of this knowledge away for later. "I mean, did you feel, for instance, angry?"

The boy remained silent for a moment, in thought. "I don't remember being angry or anything like that."

"No feelings of particular aggression?"

"Nope." That was promising. The Hokage continued his interview.

"Did you hear any kind of, say, voice? Was there...someone telling you to attack or anything like that?"

"Nothing like that, but... actually, I think I was angry, besides just sad," the boy replied, his tone and expression darkening. Well, considering what had just happened beforehand, that was reasonable. Hiruzen himself was more than a little angry about that incident. "That bastard traitor tried to..."

"It's okay, I know what happened," the Hokage interrupted in what he hoped was a sufficiently comforting tone. Having the boy think back too closely on the event that emotionally distressed him enough that he turned into a giant monster wasn't high on the list of things the Professor considered good ideas. "Move on for now. Iruka has been taken to the hospital for treatment; he will" _probably_ "survive. Mizuki will be" _posthumously_ "charged for his treasonous actions." And the Scroll of Seals was reduced to ash by direct contact with a gigantic flare up of demonic chakra, and at least one ANBU agent was probably crushed, but those tidbits didn't need to be mentioned right now.

He also had a bit of personally good news for the boy. "Also, Naruto, after what I've seen recently, I've made a determination regarding you," he began. "Despite your lack of jutsu, you show skill in what you _can_ do, and I hereby declare you a genin of Konoha." The very recent events also contributed to the situation, in that leaving a questionably-stable jinchuriki capable of a full tailed beast transformation as a civilian was a recipe for innumerable issues. But again, tidbits that didn't need to be mentioned right now.

Fortunately, the boy took well to what was said. The Hokage smiled genuinely. Such excitement and joy were rarely seen on the face of the fairly calm boy.

Then the excitement seemed to get to the boy a bit too much, though, as a sudden surge of powerful demonic chakra welled up around him. Tenzo tried to quickly restart the sealing jutsu to quickly quell the impending transformation with the yet-uncut link, but to no avail. The ANBU and the Hokage quickly jumped back and out of the way. In a moment, they once again looked up at the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

"**W-w-what?**" stuttered the again-transformed jinchuriki in shock.

"We can fix this, Naruto-kun," the Hokage quickly yelled. "Just stay calm." Tenzo took a soldier pill and immediately began the jutsu again. The Hokage knew that this was not a sustainable solution, but at least some new insight was gained. The full transformation wasn't specifically caused by a strong negative emotion; a strong positive one worked as well. But surely the boy had felt strong positive emotions before, such as his initial admittance to the academy. Perhaps the incident with the traitor Mizuki had made the transformation more readily occurring?

As he watched the giant fox body slowly starting to recede for the second time that day, he knew he still wasn't done. The jinchuriki wasn't the only one who needed to be calmed down now.

[In Konoha]

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage had to make an announcement to calm the hastily-assembled population of the village early that morning. The sudden reappearance of the Nine-Tails inside the walls, even as relatively innocuous as it was, wasn't something to just expect the general populace to shrug off. It'd be nice if he had some kind of chance ahead of time to plan out the speech, but if he had known ahead of time, he'd have a lot more than a speech ready. For now, he had to calm the populace of immediate panic, explain in sufficient detail to assuage future fears, getting the newest generation at least somewhat informed. This had to be done while being honest enough to prevent loss of faith from the citizenry and shinobi while still avoiding letting out information that spies could take advantage of.

"People of Konoha," he began, "you all are aware at least somewhat of the events of today. Let it be known that the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox seen today is _not_ the beast as it attacked us before, and is _not_ going to attack the village at large." Good, the most important point done.

Next, the fear assuaging explanation and the balancing act therein. He explained much of what he had already said to the jinchuriki himself, though without indicating who the jinchuriki was, nor giving any specific indication of what the jinchuriki's age might be. By the end of the week, most every major and minor hidden village would be aware of the sudden but essentially safe appearance of the Nine-Tails in the village. They'd determine that it was Konoha's jinchuriki, and would gauge their power appropriately, but the Hokage would be sure they knew as little as possible about the identity of that jinchuriki. That said, he held no illusions. Some would find out, and fairly soon.

Eventually, the speech came to an end. The populace had been assured as much as possible that the village's jinchuriki was not a direct threat to them, and the new generation had been introduced to the concept of a jinchuriki. Hopefully, the business would continue essentially unhindered, but the Hokage held no illusions. He was an eloquent speaker and he doubted any other person would've handled it half as well, but he couldn't solve everything.

Konoha would be changed from this day on. Maybe subtly, in the long run, but the change would be there.

Now he just had to recall a certain toad-summoning student of his. Of course _now_ of all times, the man was on the opposite side of the Land of Lightning...


	3. A Big Change

A Big Change

[Konoha]

For the younger generation, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had been mostly a story. Conceptually, it was a giant, dangerous monster that had nearly destroyed their home and loved ones, but for all practical purposes, it was something to be heard of, rather than that could conceivably actually harm them.

Until a few nights ago, anyway.

One rather lazy boy with brown hair, typically done up in a pineapple-shaped top knot, had been asleep, as he and the rest of the Nara clan was wont to be. Then, out of nowhere, a crushing, suffocating presence was upon him, jarring him awake. His mother, Yoshino, had barged into his room, a look of absolute panic on her face, hauling him out of bed in order to make it to an underground shelter.

It took some time for him to work up the nerve to ask what was going on as they travelled through interconnected tunnels, but he would never forget how his mother simply said, "The Nine-Tails is back."

For a time, the two waited with other members of their clan, as well as some other families who had come from other entries, to hear if they should evacuate the town entirely. He was vaguely aware that at some point, the murderous edge of the chakra had reduced, but still felt horribly oppressive on him. He couldn't track the time reliably, but at some point his father, Shikaku, had shown up to give an "all clear" sign. "'ALL CLEAR' MY ASS!", Yoshino had responded. It wasn't until the heavy feeling had totally subsided some time later that he and his mother has crept out of the underground and outside.

Of course, shortly after he had come outside, the massive chakra had again spiked, nearly knocking him and the others leaving the shelter off of their feet. He could see the source just north, by the wall, where gigantic tails waved in the sky.

To Shikamaru Nara and all the rest of the aspiring ninjas who now sat in the academy, back for the first time since that night, the stories they'd heard from their elders were now very, very real.

The looks of the people on the street in the days since then didn't help his morale. Neither did the fact that two instructors were missing, though he had heard that at least one was in the hospital. The nondescript substitute standing in for Iruka and Mizuki was listing off the teams. He himself had been assigned to team 10, along with Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi.

Ino, a young girl with platinum blonde hair in a long ponytail, was normally the type to object, but Shikamaru noted that she didn't protest at all, even when a certain black-haired boy she had been chasing after had been assigned to a team alone with her once friend and now chief rival for his affections.

Now that he thought about it, that team... team 7, if he remembered correctly. It wasn't something he'd heard of before, a team of two genin, but it was reasonable enough. He supposed the number of graduates was just not divisible by three. They'd probably be joined by another genin that had already finished the academy.

But that didn't quite ring true, either. The two on that team were already the top of the class. Having an experienced genin as their third member made a blatantly imbalanced-

Chakra. That same, damn, troublesome chakra, somewhere beyond the wall outside of where civilians might feel it, but not far enough that the shinobi population couldn't. He shuddered slightly, and noticed a few others following suit, though not as many as there might have been.

It had to be intentional. It wasn't the first time since that night that he'd felt it. Thinking back to what the Hokage had announced, jinchuriki were an important resource to Konoha as a whole; he knew that mentally. As troublesome as dealing with oppressive chakra waves from their strange ally was, it was still far less troublesome than being without such an ally when an enemy nation decided to use theirs.

Alongside the jinchuriki needing to learn how to use that massive power, the shinobi forces had to be acclimatized to their demon-wielding ally in order to not freeze up or panic in combat, if he or she should ever be brought to bear. Given what happened with the clearly unexpected event a few nights back, it wasn't something they were ready for otherwise.

The all-too-suspiciously-timed hospitalization of one instructor and disappearance of the other, though, had him wondering. The Hokage had claimed that their jinchuriki was safe, but he had a lot of trouble thinking of _anything_ that could be felt from miles away like this as truly safe. There was something going on. Something with the absent instructors. Something that had to do with that jinchuriki. A puzzle that wouldn't leave him alone.

Now, what had he been thinking about before his thoughts had been interrupted? There was another puzzle already in progress. Something about the team composition, but he-

"Team 10?" called a voice. He looked up and saw a dark-haired man with a beard and a cigarette.

Well, troublesome. He'd get back to it eventually. Probably.

[Konoha?]

The sun was up. It was time to get up. Time for him to move. He needed to go to the academy. He needed to learn to be a ninja. To become respected. To be known. To be a person for real like everyone else.

People turned and looked at him. They weren't ignoring him, finally. But they were terrified. Why?

He was almost there. He could see the door, and he knew Iruka-sensei would be waiting inside.

But then, as he reached for the door, his hand crashed through the door and the wall. He looked down at the ruined wall, and saw his sensei beneath his clawed hand. He had just... H-he didn't mean to...

Immediately recoiling, he rocked back and fell over. Scrambling back up, he saw the ruins of the Ichiraku's Ramen where he had fallen. Had he really...

As he looked up, he saw everyone running, except the ANBU. They were all standing nearby, facing him, weapons drawn. He swore he could see them all shaking, he could feel their terror, but they were here for him.

And then finally the old man Hokage arrived. His normally friendly face gone. He was filled with hate. Then he began to run through seals.

He looked around, and walls began to appear around him, slowly expanding to enclose him.

No! He wasn't a monster! He didn't mean to hurt them! Iruka-sensei was his friend! He wouldn't hurt him! He'd never hurt him!

The walls closed in, and began to press inward. Maybe it was better this way. He'd be gone. He couldn't hurt anyone else. Wouldn't fill them with fear and hate. He hated hurting people like that anyway. He was supposed to protect them. The walls were pressing him now. Now crushing him. Like he crushed Iruka-sensei. Like he crushed Teuchi and Ayame. He could feel the pain, hear the cracking as-

[North of Konoha]

The jinchuriki woke up late in the morning to find he had transformed in his sleep, blasting apart the small wooden building he had been sleeping in as his...no, the fox's gigantic limbs and tails were sprawled out over the unpopulated woodland outside.

He struggled to recall what was going on. He was being... crushed, he thought, because he... did something? He was being punished for something? Or what? The details were fleeting.

"Naruto!" called out his masked instructor, Tenzo, chasing out any remaining memory of the dream. He could feel the man's relatively minor fear of him in full clarity when he was transformed like this, and it didn't help him to focus.

"**G****ood morning, Sensei,**" his...no, the fox's deep, inhuman voice replied at an even level. One thing he had quickly been instructed about was that, when he was transformed, his voice carried more than well enough without trying to yell. The result was most of his responses being rather subdued, in tone if not actual decibels.

Regardless, the jinchuriki was unamused with the circumstances. "**I guess you'll have to, err, grow a new house, however you do that. I...I think I had a bad dream. I can't remember it now.**"

The masked agent sighed. "It's wood style, a blood line limit. Anyway, if a dream's enough to set you off, then I really don't know if there's a real solution down this path."

He had been training to control his emotions better, hopefully to prevent all these shape shifts. As it was, since that night, he had been set off by lesser and lesser ups and downs, most insidiously by _apprehension about accidentally transforming_. After the first two times on that night, it was essentially becoming uncontrollable, and reverting the transformation was taking a toll on his new instructor. The man could run on soldier pills only so long.

One night, the jinchuriki had just been left alone in that tailed beast form, to get whatever sleep he could while his instructor had rested. The jinchuriki had been reverted the next morning to discover his clothing had largely burned away, leaving him to wear a simple grey outfit. Orange had lost its appeal to the boy after he'd seen the fox's orange fur when he was transformed.

Purely restricting his emotions wasn't getting results. He could force himself to remain calm, but with the combined effect of building apprehension of accidentally transforming, as well as the seemingly falling barriers to the transformation, it didn't work for very long.

And now, he had this new problem. There was no way he could control what he felt in his dreams, and apparently they could set him off, too.

The result was that most of his training, rather than focusing on avoiding the tailed beast form, was instead about trying to control his chakra, as well as trying to figure out how to move around without wrecking everything within his rather considerable reach.

"Well then, this morning, we'll be moving on to a new method," his teacher explained.

The jinchuriki looked up a moment, noting the sun rather high in the sky, and wondered if this really still counted as "morning", but his sleep schedule was already far off of normal. "**Is it a different way to try and stay human?**" he asked hopefully.

"I think it will help," his instructor responded. "What I want you to do is essentially learn to mold and shape the tailed beast's chakra. The end goal is that you can prevent the transformation, and maybe eventually withdraw it back into the seal manually, without my help, but I don't know how possible that will be. Until you reach that, though, we'll settle for cutting down the miasma-like chakra you're emitting."

With that, the genin set to work. Hopefully, this would work better than those emotion exercises that seemed to be putting him further behind...

[Konoha]

A certain recently-graduated kunoichi with pale eyes was fraught with worry. She and her team had passed their jounin-sensei's test, and she was finally a ninja. Maybe her father would finally have some kinder words to say. She didn't hold out much hope that he'd ever be the loving father with warm, kind words she wished for, but he'd certainly been warmer these past few days. The need for the gigantic monster of their nightmares to suddenly show up in town to cause this was disconcerting, though.

That said, neither her father's still fairly cold disposition nor it's sudden change were the real cause of her worry. Since _that_ night, she hadn't seen a certain boy from her class. One that was important to her, whether he knew it or not. He was a boy about her age with blond hair and an orange jumpsuit, and faint markings that resembled whiskers on his face. He wasn't the smartest, nor the strongest, but he had a certain something, some kind of pride that kept him moving, despite how people seemed to treat him. And also, she...well...she liked how he looked. She wouldn't go into more detail, not even to herself.

There was also a time when she...er...saw him with her byakugan active, a special blood line limit from her family that allowed her to see chakra, through walls, around her, and other details. She had...umm...seen him, and...

...

The problem was that his disappearance coincided with _that_ night. That was the real cause of her concern. The Hokage had said that the jinchuriki's transformation had been "safe", and there was no need to fear him or her, but with her classmate suddenly nowhere to be found in town, her imagination ran wild in it's slowly building panic.

She couldn't ask her clan; they'd immediately ask why she was worried about some "clanless failure", though that exact term would probably only be used by her cousin. She worked up the nerve to ask a few other villagers, such as a father and daughter that worked at a ramen stand he frequented, but they didn't answer, for some reason. Presumably, they didn't know.

But Iruka-sensei, their former instructor. She'd heard he was in the hospital, _also_ since that night. She was running out of leads, and she knew he was close to her blond classmate. Well, relatively so, anyway.

This whole chain of thoughts was why she now found herself waiting inside Konoha's hospital. Soon enough, she was lead to a room, wherein she found the academy instructor laying down on a bed, bandaged around his torso.

"H-hello, Iruka-sensei," she said, forcing herself mostly calm. Her instructor looked almost as if he had aged 20 years since she last saw him.

"Oh, hello, Hinata," he replied. "What can I do for you today? Nothing too strenuous, I hope." He chuckled slightly, but she could tell he wasn't quite so happy as his demeanor implied.

"N-not much, I j-just wanted to ask you a-about something," she began. "A-about a few nights ago..." She paused. "When, umm... 'it' appeared..."

Iruka began to speak while she had again paused. "I'm sorry, Hinata, but I can't tell you the exact details of my injuries." _That_... wasn't what she wanted to ask, but it definitely raised some questions. That said, she was having enough trouble raising her own question.

She steeled her nerves. "I j-just want to know. Do you know where Naruto-kun is? I haven't seen him since...then." she finally asked.

Iruka looked anywhere but at her from his bed. His expression was... sad? Guilty? Uncertain? Fearful? He clearly knew something, but it was bad news. Whatever he knew, though, he was completely silent. She felt her heart sinking as the silence dragged on and on.

It must've shown on her face, though, because when he did suddenly notice it, he was quick to respond again. "No, it's not like that! Naruto is alive. He's just..." The bedridden instructor sighed. "He's out for the moment. I can't tell you more."

[Konoha Hospital]

A lazy, newly-minted genin had been showing uncharacteristic initiative in heading to meet his hospitalized instructor when he discovered a classmate already en route to the same, though likely with different purpose. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to notice him, as she walked through the halls with surprising purpose.

She began to meet with him first, and he just decided to listen in for a time. A few lines jumped out to him.

"I can't tell you the exact details of my injuries." "I haven't seen him since...then." "Naruto is alive. He's just... He's out for the moment. I can't tell you more." His blond classmate was also missing since then, since that same night, and his bedridden former instructor knew about it. Those two and Mizuki were involved in something that night, which had hospitalized one, and made the other two essentially vanish. He continued his thoughts as he began to talk back down the hall.

The jinchuriki. If the jinchuriki had injured two chunin and an academy student that night, it'd be covered up to avoid even greater disruption of the populace. But dammit, if there was a real danger, it couldn't be left alone like this. The Hokage was okay with it, but Shikamaru couldn't just accept it at face value. Still, he was out of leads.

...

Well...

Almost out of leads. Of course, the last one...

...

"Oh, h-hello, Shikamaru." His thoughts were again interrupted by the classmate he had followed here. Not that he really wanted to stay on that train of thought, anyway.

"Hey," he said simply. "I was here to talk to Iruka-sensei, but I already heard what I needed. Thanks for that."

"D-do you know anything about Naruto-kun?" she asked him.

"Know? Not for certain, no, but I have some guesses." He organized his thoughts a bit. "The night he vanished was the same night as...that. That's also when Mizuki-sensei vanished and Iruka-sensei was hospitalized," he began to explain. "But, it could be coincidence, so take it with a grain of salt.

"The Hokage, in his speech, downplayed the direct threat of the jinchuriki. Iruka-sensei's injuries and Mizuki-sensei's and Naruto's disappearances were also kept secret, which could point to the jinchuriki being related, somehow. If the jinchuriki was the cause, they'd want to avoid a panic, which is hard enough as it is. The shinobi in attendance would all be sworn to the same secrecy."

"S-so the only p-person to ask n-n-now is..." she began, hesitation evident.

"...the jinchuriki himself. Or herself," he finished. Then he added an addendum. "If he or she isn't as sworn to secrecy as Iruka-sensei and all the shinobi that attended the incident. And if he or she has anything to do with any of the disappearances, which is still something of a leap of logic."

With that, she walked briskly off. He supposed she'd given up for now, their last lead essentially unusable.

Really. She was going to give up on this. She wasn't going to try and sneak out of the village, past trained shinobi, alone, as a person with a very specific history as a victim of kidnapping due to her heritage and position, with the express purpose of _interrogating the __single most dangerous entity currently present __**on the Earth**_.

Right?

...

Troublesome.

"Hey, Hinata! Wait!" he yelled as he ran to catch up to her.

"W-what is it?" she asked.

"You're not going to try and confront the jinchuriki, are you?" he asked seriously.

Her pale eyes widened considerably. "N-n-no! Of course n-not! That's p-practically s-suicide!" she exclaimed. "I was g-going to t-talk to Ino. H-half the ninja in t-town showed up that n-night, m-maybe more. E-even if they d-don't talk d-directly about it, at least one is s-sure to let s-s-something s-slip. And if anyone w-would hear about that, a g-gossip like Ino would b-be the one t-to ask."

That was... brilliant, actually. He felt kind of dumb having assumed the former, now.


	4. A Big Advancement

A Big Advancement

[Yamanaka Flowers]

A certain blond-haired kunoichi had been in a kind of funk the past few days. She'd managed to pass the second genin exam, but only just. She'd been unable to really focus as much as she wanted, unable to even really pine after the best and dreamiest shinobi of their class. She felt like she was just kind of going through the motions as she attended the family flower shop's desk.

"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers," she announced as the door opened, putting on a fake smile. She then noticed that the customers were familiar: her lazy teammate and the class's shrinking violet.

What was most jarring was their request.

"H-hello, Ino. We're here to ask about r-recent gossip," said Hinata, with relatively little stutter.

For these two to be together asking for gossip, there had to be some underlying reason. That said, despite being a bit out of sorts, she had heard plenty of _interesting_ things lately...

So, she put up an "Away" sign at the door and started in. The completely open topic left her free to speak as she wished. Rumors about the Nine-Tails returning for revenge, rumors about the jinchuriki coming to avenge the Nine-Tails, gossip about unrequited love for a masked jounin sensei, gossip about requited love between two of the new jounin senseis, rumors about the Nine-Tails having turned over a new leaf (she suspected that was just someone's attempt at a pun), hysterical announcements of the end of the world, a rumor about a theft from the Hokage's tower on that night, gossip about Sasuke liking long hair because it reminded him of his mother, further rumors about the Nine-Tails and revenge, rumors about completely mundane foxes rising up, some half-heard note in shushed tones about a traitor, a rumor about the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki going crazy, a rumor about a theft from the Hokage's office in the academy building on that night (she suspected it was the same theft as from the tower, just people confusing the two distinct locations), rumors about Iruka-sensei being in the hospital (she saw a faint shift in Shikamaru's expression at that), an overheard statement that the Nine-Tails called the Hokage an old man, a rumor that the Hokage was somehow able to control the Nine-Tails like Madara Uchiha, rumors about the One-Tails, or One-Tailed, or One-Tail coming from Suna to help fight the Nine-Tails (she'd heard it pronounced all three ways, and she wasn't sure why this rumor was so persistent given the sound rejections she'd heard along with it each time), occasional muttering about that heavy, far-off chakra as if it had nothing to do with the Nine-Tails or its jinchuriki, more gossip about Sasuke, this time that he preferred short hair because it didn't remind him of his mother, a muttering about a manhunt for their other blond classmate on that night (she saw Hinata's eyes widen at that), a rumor about Iruka executing a traitor, gossip about Sharingan Kakashi, a rumor about the Nine-Tails executing a traitor, gossip about a depressed special jounin who's girlfriend died recently, reports of increased psychological troubles brought before the Yamanaka clan, and a few more unspecified rumors about the Nine-Tails and/or its jinchuriki just for good measure.

It felt pretty good to get back to talking to people like this, something she'd been out of for a bit. It helped let her think about other things than her own fears for the future, and was just generally familiar for her. Maybe after all this was done, she would try and mend bridges with Sakura, so they could talk like this again. That said, her contentedness didn't mean she'd let her two visitors leave unquestioned.

"So, you two aren't normally so excited in the news I've found out," she began with a wry grin. "What's the story?"

"W-well, we t-talked to Iruka-sensei earlier," Hinata began.

"Oh, how's he doing? Is he really in the hospital?" Ino interrupted.

"Y-yes. He's n-not looking v-very healthy," Hinata admitted. "S-since he was h-hospita-pitalized on the s-same night, w-we thought h-he'd know s-something about N-Naruto-kun. I-I h-h-haven't s-seen h-him for d-d-days..." Her stutter was particularly harsh on the last sentence. "N-not s-since...that n-night."

"We think the jinchuriki's sudden activity is related to both of them, as well as Mizuki-sensei's disappearance," the lazy boy continued. "We're hoping that we can piece together something from what we heard from you."

"Well, I helped you out, so I want in on this!" This sounded more exciting than a thousand of the other Nine-Tails/jinchuriki rumors. And she was fairly certain there were indeed a thousand of them.

[North of Konoha]

ANBU captain Tenzo had dealt with many things during his time in ANBU. Some terrifying, some unsettling, some exhausting, some confusing, and some actually rather amusing. Still, the events of the last few days with the jinchuriki were by far the most unique.

For terror, there was, of course the first night, when the Nine-Tails suddenly appeared in the village. He had suspected he'd be helping train the boy at some time and would have to deal with the fox then, but was taken completely by surprise by what seemed like a catastrophic failure of the seal. Even now, he couldn't say he wasn't afraid, if only slightly.

For unsettling, there was talking with the boy when he was stuck in the Nine-Tails' form, for the first while. Having a conversation with a gigantic monster with a booming voice that speaks with the mannerisms of a determined but emotionally-vulnerable child was off-putting, to say the least.

For exhausting, there was the persistent effort to revert the boy's transformations. He burned through so much chakra, and even then, he was only able to do the action slowly, and with the jinchuriki's full cooperation. He was constantly taking soldier pills and naps to keep up with the needs.

For confusing, there was the circumstances in general. What kind of seal did the Fourth make, that allowed this to happen? It was brilliant, in that it allowed the full use of the fox's power with apparently no influence from the fox itself. It was broken in its inability to keep that power in check, resulting in the jinchuriki constantly puffing up into a giant chakra monster.

For amusing, there was physical exercise with the boy, when transformed. He wondered if it may have helped allay the villagers' fears if they could come out to see the horrifying beast of their nightmares stumbling clumsily around the countryside like a giant drunkard, apologizing for various splintered woodlands and levelled hillsides caused by missteps and errant tail movements.

Truth be told, in full form, the boy was no lumbering beast. He was _fast_, with movement practically proportional to an ordinary fox. Combined with the absurdly disproportionate strength and the slowly-increasing familiarity with that body, he would be a figurative beast as well as literal with taijutsu, if it could still be called that. Maybe Guy would have a new rival in that respect, though the ANBU captain foresaw the rivalry being possibly even more one-sided than the one with Kakashi.

But still, the boy had greater obstacles than a bit of clumsiness. Until he could stabilize his caustic chakra, he was a danger to all nearby. The agent himself, even with his unique adaptations, couldn't touch the boy for long when he was fully transformed, and he knew for certain that it could be felt to some extent all across town, even from out here.

Finally, though, there seemed to be good news on this front.

"**Hey, Tenzo-sensei. I'm ready to try again,**" the transformed boy called out to him in his booming voice.

Tenzo quickly formed a wooden clone to attend to test the boy's most recent attempts. It was a simple exercise. Put a wood clone into contact with the boy's transformed body and see if it survived. There'd been great progress today with this, especially considering the exercise had only begun this morning.

That said, progress didn't mean success. Thus far, every wood clone he'd sent out had died a horrible death of chakra poisoning, disintegrating into rotten, charred wood. The most recent had survived about 13 minutes of contact before it succumbed.

This time, however, felt like it may be successful. The oppressive chakra the boy used to give off in this form was very much subdued. It probably couldn't even be felt in town any more, unless a sensor focused. Sure, if a sensor was nearby, the jinchuriki would hide his chakra about as well as he hid his giant, orange and fuzzy fox body, but there may never really be a solution to that.

The wood clone approached and touched a paw that was resting on the ground. After a short time, it spoke. "Very good, the pervasive chakra is held tightly to the body. You're now safe to touch," he reported happily.

The boy grinned, or did what passed as a grin for a gigantic fox monster. It was almost certainly unnerving to someone who was unfamiliar with the boy, but to the ANBU agent, it was endearing.

"Now, let's get you back to normal and try the same control," he said, as he prepared for the jutsu he'd become very familiar with.

[Inside Konoha]

A Hyuuga, a Nara, and a Yamanaka were together in a flower shop. Rather than being the setup for a joke of some form, they were discussing gossip and giant monsters, as well as figurative separation of wheat and chaff. The two kunoichi sat on chairs Ino had brought out, while Shikamaru leaned against the desk.

"S-so, we've got the f-following clues together," began Hinata, to try and sum up what they'd put together. "There was a th-theft from the H-Hokage, from w-whatever building, th-that's not important. There w-was also a s-search order f-for Naruto-kun. W-we can't t-tell if the t-two were really r-related, and I d-don't th-think N-Naruto-kun would just steal for n-no reason. Th-that's the last we really c-can say for certain of him. M-maybe he was caught, m-maybe he escaped, b-but I d-don't think Iruka-sensei w-would lie about him being alive, and h-he would have to b-be _somewhere_, if Iruka-s-sensei knew he w-was alive. The jinchu-churiki m-might really have n-nothing to do w-with him being gone." While she really didn't want to be out of leads entirely for the blond boy, she also really didn't want him anywhere _near_ that thing.

Shikamaru continued. "Later that night, or at least we assume later due to any other business like a search getting thrown out at this point, the senseis Mizuki and Iruka are both in the woods on the north side of town. No Nine-Tails yet, the instructors are just there, for some reason. Then, there's the Nine-Tails jinchuriki there all of a sudden. Okay, the jinchuriki was likely not there as suddenly, but the Nine-Tails form definitely was. Around the time it shows up, there's some kind of traitor around. This traitor dies, either to Iruka-sensei, or the jinchuriki."

"Or Mizuki-sensei," interjected Ino. "Just because I didn't hear anyone mention Mizuki as possibly defeating the traitor doesn't mean nobody said anything about it."

"Then, Iruka-s-sensei is injured, and p-probably M-Mizuki-sensei, t-too, b-but he was even w-worse," Hinata continued. "N-now, if either one w-was injured b-by the t-traitor, th-that'd b-be kept secret, b-but the s-same would h-happen if they were i-injured by the j-jinchuriki."

"And he won't talk, Mizuki's missing, and we don't really have any leads on the traitor," the Nara said. "We're missing a piece, and most anything we put into place is speculation. So troublesome..."

She wasn't willing to leave it alone at that, though. "W-wait. W-what about N-Naruto-kun?" Really, there had to be something they were missing about him. He... _Iruka_ knew something about what happened to him. "I-Iruka-sensei had a kind of s-sad l-look when I asked about h-him," she said finally.

"So..._that's_ what that pause was?" responded Shikamaru, eyes slightly wider. He had only heard the conversation, the Hyuuga kunoichi suddenly recalled. "But wait, he could just have heard about what happened to Naruto. He was always close to the boy."

"N-no, I think there w-was m-more to it. H-his expression. He seemed s-several things, b-but it w-was really..." The shy girl thought back. What was it exactly? It was... "F-fear?"

"He was scared for Naruto?" asked Ino.

"N-no, he was...scared _of_ N-Naruto-kun, I th-think," she finished, uncertain.

"W-why would-," Shikamaru's questioning stopped, as his eyes widened and his grip on the edge of the counter tightened. "Could..._Naruto_ be..."

Hinata's heartbeat was suddenly about twice as fast. She suddenly thought back to what she'd once seen. She had tried to forget, like her father had told her to, but it had stuck with her, in the back of her mind. That one time, when she'd accidentally seen him with her byakugan active, she saw... "R-red ch-chakra."

"What?" Ino asked, confused. She apparently hadn't quite gotten as far in her thoughts yet.

"N-Naruto-k-kun has r-red ch-chakra," Hinata repeated, pale eyes wide and her stutter intensifying. "I-I once s-saw h-h-him, accid-dentally, w-with my b-byakuga-gan, he h-had r-red chakra! N-nobody else I've ever s-seen d-does!"

"Wait, you mean...?" the platinum blond began to say, before trailing off, her eyes also now quite wide.

"Stop," Shikamaru began. "Put it together. Naruto is accused of stealing something, maybe he has or maybe he hasn't, he's out in the woods, to hide himself or what was stolen or whatever. Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei are looking for him because they're worried about him, and they find him. They also find the traitor, maybe the traitor finds them, then he or she attacks the senseis and Naruto gets really angry, and then-"

"_And then you stop the discussion,_" came a deeper voice. The trio looked up and saw the elder platinum blond, Inoichi Yamanaka. "Nicely reasoned; Shikaku would be proud. But, _these are S-rank secrets, and for good reason._ You will _not_ repeat _any_ of this to _anyone_."

The three dispersed soon thereafter, giving each other knowing, if dazed looks. It fit too well. The Nara's summation was really just a formality at this point. The quiet, blond boy from class with unbreakable pride was the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

[North of Konoha]

He had to hold on. The demonic chakra in the seal was relatively calm now, but the blond jinchuriki had to keep a grip on it. In case something happened. Because something always did. He was so pathetic, he'd be set off by anything from physical pain to being startled to bad dreams, and he _couldn't stand it_. He held on because he didn't like transforming. He didn't like seeing and _feeling_ the fear in everyone around him. He didn't want to be a monster. He held on and on and-

He was suddenly struck in the gut, knocking him out of focus. Hold on. The demonic chakra in the seal started shifting, to escape and turn him into a monster, and he wouldn't let it. He'd hold on. He'd beat this damn fox. So he could go back home. So he could go to his own room, and eat at Ichiraku's with Iruka-sensei and the old man Hokage, and talk to Ayame and Teuchi. He could go back to how he was, it wasn't so bad being ignored, it was better than being hated and feared like that, looked at like a monster, _being_ a monster, and he could have his life and friends and home back if he could _just hold on._ Just until the chakra calmed down. Just until he was safe. Just until-

-now.

The demonic chakra from the seal had returned to its normal flow, no longer threatening to surge out as it had been. He sighed, and began to chuckle a bit, then to actually laugh, as he lay down on the ground. His newest sensei approached in person, finally. He imagined a smile visible behind the man's ANBU mask.

"Congratulations, Naruto," he said warmly. He couldn't feel the man's fear now, even when he had felt it slightly before while in his human body.

He'd have to practice, certainly, and it was still not a solution to transforming in the night, but it was more than he'd had. For the first time, he could say for sure: "I'm not a monster," the boy said simply, a bit of pride in his voice.


	5. A Big Meeting

A Big Meeting

[Team 10's Training Ground]

"So... what now?" asked the platinum blond kunoichi, standing at the base of a tree between attempts to ascend.

"Now nothing," responded her lazy conversation partner, catching the oblique reference. The boy hadn't made quite so much progress up the tree as she had, though she did wonder how much he was really trying.

She huffed. They'd just discovered the big secret, the truth, the reality. Everything was supposed to be different, everything was supposed to change. But, here they were, at training with their newly-assigned jounin-sensei, basically going on as it had been. They hadn't even felt the chakra from their former classmate today, and around town, people seemed to be returning to their normal lives.

"So, we're safe, right?" she queried, before running toward the tree once again. She focused chakra on her feet, not too much, not too little, and managed to get up to the second lowest branch available, where she could stop a moment. "He's not a bad guy or anything like that." She remembered the boy. He was visually memorable, and she recalled he always failed to use ninjutsu or genjutsu, but that he was pretty stealthy and tough in a hand-to-hand spar. Never cruel, but when someone thought he was below them, he showed a tougher side. Though when someone actually _was_ tougher, like her Sasuke-kun, well, he got pretty worked up.

Other than that, he seemed to have a sense of right about lying; she'd notice how he might sometimes glare when someone told a lie in class, such as a lame excuse, or sometimes a pretty good one she might not have known if not for his subtle glare. Some of them, she wouldn't have recognized if not for seeing him glare, though he didn't catch some others she recognized.

"For now, I guess," he continued, having himself run up to the lowest branch on his own tree, which was lower than the lowest of her own, naturally, as they'd each picked a tree themselves.

"You...guess?"

"Well, if things don't change, we're safe," somewhat enigmatically.

But, she understood. "So, if he... remains himself."

Around then, they had to cut off the discussion, as their bearded sensei returned from helping out their portly teammate.

[North of Konoha]

A couple days after first learning to hold himself under control, a certain blond jinchuriki woke up, fortunately still as a human, meaning the temporary house he'd been, er, grown was still intact, along with the simple cot he had been on. He was still practicing the control to deal with it, and wasn't perfect yet. Yesterday, he'd had an incident where he'd fully transformed when one of his sensei's wood clones caught him by surprise. He'd managed to at least keep the caustic chakra at bay, so the wood clone had survived, though somewhat crushed due to being in close proximity to a rapidly growing object. Still, he knew he could do better, was doing better.

He hadn't woken up just at random, though. As he looked around, he saw his masked sensei, or at least a wood clone, at the door to the building. "Naruto, we'll be having a visitor today," the man stated simply.

"Is it the old man?" the boy asked.

"Well, yes, but he's actually bringing someone else," the masked man replied. The Hokage had come to visit a few times, and the boy was happy to see him. The old man didn't fear him at all, while Tenzo-sensei was still slightly afraid.

The boy grew hopeful, a faint smile showing up on his face. "Is it Iruka-sensei?" He hadn't seen his sensei since...well...then. He had written some letters, though, and received some in turn. His sensei had been in the hospital, over which Iruka had written repeatedly not to feel guilt over, that it was his sensei's own choice to protect him. That said, he tended to avoid talking about how his condition was in details, just that he was "getting better".

"Not him, either, though he does wish to see you in person when he can." Well, he wasn't sure who else off-hand. Maybe Teuchi? Or Ayame? He'd gotten a letter from them, and written back. He thought more. He also had gotten one letter from someone he hadn't expected. Was...Hinata coming to visit? He didn't remember much about her, except that she was very shy and stuttered frequently. Oh, and she had wonderful penmanship. He thought she could do much more if she could learn to speak like she wrote.

Now that he thought of it, wasn't she _not_ supposed to know that he was a jinchuriki? _Some S-rank secret, old man,_ he thought.

Apparently, his musings had lasted a bit, because Tenzo then proceeded to speak again, answering the question. "Jiraiya-sama of the Legendary Sannin will be arriving today," he said, a hint of hope in his voice.

The blond thought a moment. History hadn't been his strongest subject at the academy, but he wasn't so dense as not to recall one of the strongest members of the village, even if he usually wasn't in the village. The man was a skilled shinobi, a toad summoner, and a powerful...seal master.

His face lit up. Konoha's greatest seal master since the Fourth was coming to see him! He might be able to fix the seal so it stopped turning him into the fox! He might be able to-_hold_. _Hold on_. Hold. On. Stop. Control it. Hold onto it. He wouldn't transform now just because of some good news. He was better than that, he wasn't a weak-willed academy student who couldn't-

There. He was safe again. Now he could respond. "Th-that's great, sensei. I can't wait to meet him." Despite being down a bit from his initial high point from the news, his voice still held hope. He hoped his sensei hadn't noticed the delay, but he couldn't tell if the man had through that funny mask.

[North of Konoha]

An old man with a robe and the large hat of his office approached the lone wooden building, accompanied by a large man with long, white hair. Most anyone in Konoha could probably identify them as Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage, and Jiraiya, the toad sage.

"Sensei, I've told you when I first saw the seal that I couldn't explain it. It doesn't seem to work like any I've seen before," said the taller man. One night many years ago, he had seen the seal in question, which was supposed to seal the Nine-Tailed Fox inside an infant. The apparent design was like one he'd been shown by his deceased student Minato, but when he examined it then, the way the chakra worked was nothing like described. Since the fox was certainly contained at the time, and the boy was essentially normal other than the seal and its curious effect on his chakra, he had to assume it was working correctly.

Then he'd recently gotten a message to come home, informing him that Konoha's jinchuriki had suddenly taken the form of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. At first, he'd been ready to charge home and help save what he could, well aware of what an out-of-control tailed beast could do, but the next sentence did clarify that the boy was, in fact, fully in control of the body. He was just not in control of his body's shape. Still, it was certainly a problem, and no small one, so off he went, hoping that this time, he may be able to finally understand the seal on his blond godson.

"I'll try, but I don't know what I can do," he said finally.

His sensei's face held a look of resignation. "That's all we've been able to do so far. Try." The elder man had explained to him the evolving situation when he first arrived in his office. The boy head recently gotten a modicum of control, able to reduce the massive chakra presence and actively prevent a transformation, but he also had the problem of transforming in his sleep when he could put up no active resistance, though that had only occurred once so far, before he'd learned the resistance, in fact.

Soon enough, they came upon the building, where an ANBU agent-Tenzo, the wood style user, according to his sensei-stepped out, along with a blond boy in a plain grey outfit. He recognized the boy as his godson. He recalled hearing that the boy had previously worn orange almost exclusively, but tastes could certainly change. He did notice that the boy wore a forehead protector with his dull outfit.

"You're Jiraiya-sama, right?" the boy asked, almost with stars in his eyes. Jiraiya hadn't gotten much opportunity to get to know him before, but boy made a good impression on him so far. "You're the person who can fix my seal?" He blanched a bit at that.

"Well, brat, I'll look at it, but I should warn you," he began with a sigh, "I've looked at your seal before, back when it was first applied, and I couldn't understand the thing then." He saw the boy's mood deflate considerably at that, as expected, but then he saw him tense. "You okay, brat?"

"Y-yeah," the container stuttered. It didn't take a Sannin to realize something was up.

"Let's see what we can do, eh?" He tried to give a reassuring grin as he formed a hand seal, creating a single shadow clone.

[North of Konoha]

The clone the seal master created approached him, while the seal master himself, along with his own masked sensei and the old man (not to say that the seal master wasn't old, but certainly not _as_ old) all backed off. Deep in his mind, he suspected it was for the best, but he still felt that they lacked faith in him...

Jiraiya wasn't really as the boy had pictured in his mind. The formal, serious S-rank ninja he expected was this informal, joking man that called him a "brat" all the time (he wasn't sure what he thought of that), and smiled to him in a familiar way. That said, he could feel the worry in him, as well as...guilt? He tended to feel guilt in people who were lying, whether to him or another, but this was a slightly different form of it.

This clone wasn't like his sensei's. It was made from nothing at all, but seemed to have a solid form... After a moment, he made the connection. A jutsu from that scroll he stupidly stole made clones like that, though the variant he saw was supposed to make a lot more than one. He supposed there had to be degrees of it; it wasn't always useful to have a hundred clones walking around, especially for things like stealth missions.

"Lift your shirt and then stand still awhile, brat," the clone seal master instructed. As the man's hand touched the seal on his stomach, he felt the foreign chakra prodding through the seal, touching the demonic chakra slightly. He tensed as the hand suddenly jerked back slightly, the man wincing. But the fox's chakra was still reacting, hold... hold... and it stilled. Less than typical, certainly, but not nothing.

He couldn't let that stop it. He could hold back the fox, he was certain of it. He had to now, so that he could get his seal fixed and go back to how he was. He'd tough it out.

The toad sage's hand returned toward his stomach. This time, he felt a light aura of chakra around it, presumably some kind of protection from the fox. The prodding continued, and the blond kept a firm grip on the fox's chakra, determined to see this through the end.

As the examination continued, though, the foreign chakra interacted with the fox's more and more, and the grip had to be tightened. He wouldn't let it falter, though. He wasn't weak. He'd get through this. He was vaguely aware that the man's minor feelings of dissatisfaction were growing. Did this mean that he couldn't help? That he still didn't understand the seal?

What happened next wasn't what the jinchuriki had wanted. Was it the apprehension that the seal was unsolvable, his focus falling, or the examination itself? No one could say for sure, but the boy suddenly began to transform again, the fox's chakra solidifying again into a physical body.

He looked down from his now-towering perspective to see the middle-aged seal master looking back at him with wide eyes. He felt the fear in him, too, now, where it had previously been gone.

Then an angry look appeared on the man's face as began to speak. "Brat, if I hadn't used a shadow clone, I could've died there, you know." The transformed boy was taken aback. "You must've felt it, you had to actively hold it back. If you felt that, why didn't you give a warning?"

He struggled to respond. "**I...I thought I could h-hold it back,**" he responded weakly, which was ironic considering his voice.

The man sighed. "Eh, not much to do about it now. I can't really continue examining now, but I'll go with what I've got for now and try to figure something out."

The Hokage now spoke up. "Naruto-kun, please withdraw your chakra." The jinchuriki sheepishly realized he'd forgotten about that bit. He quickly withdraw it into himself, and noticed how the three in front of him became noticeably more relaxed. "Tenzo, please help Naruto-kun change back," the Hokage ordered his sensei. The Hokage then moved off to the side, presumably to talk with Jiraiya.

Reverting would take an hour, though. He had to demonstrate some kind of control over his problem, show that he wasn't a lost cause, after what just happened. But...

The seal. He'd learned over time that his normal body wasn't completely gone during the transformations. In fact, it was somewhere in the fox's forehead. He knew how to hold the chakra in the seal to avoid transforming by continuously pulling it back, and he knew how to pull his chakra into the fox body while transformed. If he could combine the two...

...then he could revert himself!

He set to work on it immediately, finding the seal's location, and began to try and withdraw the chakra inside of it. His sensei, probably noticing that he was doing something, stalled, not attempting to activate his normal jutsu.

It was difficult, trying to focus the chakra down into the small seal, but the seal seemed to be like a storage tank, and in a few moments the giant fox form was rapidly receding. But when he'd gotten around halfway done, it got harder. Much harder. He had to concentrate, to force the chakra in, but it was still doable, with enough effort. And he would put forth that effort; he wouldn't be stuck like this forever. He wasn't going to be dependent like that, and he wasn't going to be stuck like this. He was so caught up in it, he only faintly noted the yelling outside.

It was only as the last of the chakra receded that he really heard something. "N-N-Naruto!" the old man was yelling. He looked up and saw the anguished face, and he felt the fear, fear _for_ him, clearer than it should've been, and some vague disappointment. Disappointment?

The Hokage regained his composure and then spoke with authority. "Naruto, what did you just do?"

"I-I turned myself back," he began. "I withdrew the chakra, like you said, but then I thought I might try and do that all the way into the seal, so I could just turn myself back."

"And _why_ did you decide to do this now?" the Hokage questioned. "It would eventually be useful, but it we should've had Jiraiya's full opinion first. Furthermore, you should've had a lot more practice with controlling that chakra before trying to force it back like that! You'd _just_ undergone an involuntary transformation a moment before!"

The jinchuriki had no response for that. The Hokage then formed a clone, who walked up to him and took out a kunai. "Look at your eyes," the clone instructed. Looking into a reflective surface of the blade, he found them. The iris had become red, and the pupil slitted. His reversion...hadn't worked completely?

The clone put the kunai away, and then pulled up the blond's shirt again. "It...it's changed," he muttered, the old man's voice betraying what the boy could already feel in him with far more clarity than he should've been able to. The seal had changed _visibly_? His attempt to revert had done _that much damage_?

He looked himself, and sure enough, the center of the spiral pattern was starting to fade. He...what...what would that mean about-

Hold. Hold on. Keep it in, don't. _Hold._ _Hold._ _**Hold. Why couldn't he-!**_

The fox's gigantic form spread uselessly over the land once again, it's face beset by what only a few in the world could recognize immediately as sadness. The sound of its voice was recognizable as a deep wail.


	6. A Big Seal

A Big Seal

[Outside Konoha]

He had transformed. Again. Just north of Konoha, it was an increasingly common sight: the gigantic body of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox appearing out of nowhere, with a startled expression that shifted into a pained, frustrated look, or more recently, just a look of plain despair.

To keep Tenzo-sensei out of the hospital, they had agreed to limit the use of his jutsu for subduing the chakra to twice a day: once just before the boy went to sleep, and once some time during the morning, so there'd be time for him to rest a bit. This left the boy stuck in the tailed beast form more often than not.

So, what does a shinobi do with large amounts of free time? Training. In the situation this shinobi was in, it was training with the fox's body.

Even if he could hopefully have better control over the transformation again in the future, the fact of the matter was that the tailed beast form wasn't going away. So, he at least ought not to be a colossal klutz while he was stuck like this. He'd advanced beyond constantly tripping over his...the fox's limbs and tails, or crushing everything with stray movement. Now he was working a bit on more actual movements, such as precisely jumping from one point to another, should he have to move quickly in an area with little space for him to stand on.

While useful in the long run, he wasn't happy with it. He was stuck in this depressing state because he screwed up. No other way around it. He had tried to do something to prove he could, and he couldn't, and it had cost him. Now, he could hardly hold his human form at all, his transformations triggered by things he couldn't even consciously notice.

He began to miss things he had never really thought about. The ability to eat, for one thing. While he could devour an appreciable portion of the woodland and the creatures dwelling therein with the fox's body, the giant chakra construct didn't actually need to eat, and it didn't do much good for the small human body it enveloped. When he got reverted, he'd just have a soldier pill, if he needed it, and as much to drink as he could.

Another thing he missed was actual human beings. Sure, he didn't have particularly much human interaction before, but he did talk with the Ichirakus, the old man Hokage, his senseis and the other students at the academy. Now, the only person he ever really interacted with was Tenzo-sensei. And he was always wearing that damn cat mask. _Maybe I should ask if he could take it off some time?_ the transformed boy thought, as he narrowly held his balance after a leap.

Even with Tenzo-sensei, the man was much smaller than his...the fox's hand. It seemed vaguely like he was talking to a toy ninja. A surprisingly intricate one, to be sure.

But...he had to admit, it wasn't all bad. He could appreciate what he could do with this body that he couldn't with his own. He sniffed the air, and he could smell the forest and pick out everything in it. With massive ears, he listened in and heard the wind in the trees with clarity he could never have imagined before. He heard wild deer moving cautiously through the woodlands out of his range, and he could hear how they moved differently from the domesticated deer the Nara kept. It was almost like being in a completely different world, albeit a miniaturized one.

He started moving and took a great leap, and he was able to cross the Naka river in a single step at the narrowest portions, and with a single leap at the widest within his area. He remembered it's foreboding look in Konoha... And as a human, even as a ninja, he couldn't move like this. He could go anywhere, and no obstacle would hinder him for long.

Maybe if...if he had to stay like this, he could be okay, after awhile. Running across the land, the wind in his fur, the world around him to see, hear, smell. It wouldn't be so bad. The negative feelings of people, he could still feel them, unpleasant as they were, wouldn't hold him back. Their fear, hate, guilt, anger, he could deal with it somehow. Maybe he could run somewhere faraway, where he wouldn't be bothered, or maybe he could get rid of them, get rid of the people, push them out or crush and kill them so he'd stop feeling their malice and despair.

_Stop._ What...how... _Where had that thought come from!?_ That wasn't him! He...he didn't want to hurt anyone, that wasn't him! He wasn't the monster, he wasn't the Nine-Tails, he wasn't a threat, a danger. And he never would be. He hoped.

Why did he think those things? Was it the fox? Was the Nine-Tails somehow affecting his thoughts? Or was he just starting to letting his isolation get to him?

Whatever it was, he couldn't just stay as he was. Not forever. Something would give. He'd screw up, and something would happen, something bad, though he couldn't say what.

He still held out hope, though. Jiraiya was the best seal master in the Land of Fire, probably the best in the world. And he was here, in Konoha, working furiously to help him. So he would be back to normal some time. Mostly. He'd see real people again, eat real food again, live in his own apartment, maybe make friends, become a real shinobi instead of just brute force incarnate with a forehead protector that nobody could even see.

"Hey, Naruto!" his sensei yelled, immediately pulling the jinchuriki's attention away from his own worries. He stopped moving and looked around, excited to be back to his normal body, back to the familiar and safe, if only for a short time. His sensei had come to revert him, probably having followed him across the river in a normal, shinobi fashion.

He did remember that he had something to ask, though. "**Hey, Tenzo-sensei, would it be okay if you could remove your mask? Maybe just when nobody else is around?**"

[Hokage's Office]

The third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was surprised by the surprising work ethic of his student. Since he'd returned, he hadn't heard even one report of any perverts peeping on hot springs, which was usually standard when the author of the "Icha Icha" series was in town.

Now he was already in the Hokage office, showing new seals drawn up whole cloth, to solve a completely unique jinchuriki seal problem. That said, the Hokage did note the bags under the Sannin's eyes. _Jiraiya, exactly how much have you slept these past days?_ he wondered silently.

Jiraiya began to speak, giving an answer to the jinchuriki seal problem, rather than the question of his sleep schedule. "I've got two major things to help get Naruto out of this. First," he began, pulling out a scroll bearing a complex array of seals, "this is the simple one."

_That's the __simple__ one_, the Hokage repeated in his head.

"This is basically a basic safety measure on the seal. Right now, when he transforms, it's really sudden, so he's a danger to people around whenever he's set off." He started pointing to some parts of the seal.

"These will go around the existing seal, just attaching to the outflow from them. Instead of the fox's chakra just flowing directly from beast to brat through the seal, they'll flow through this, which resists chakra flow.

"But _not_ like standard chakra suppression seals. I saw your note on using those, by the way," he added with a grin. Hiruzen grinned back at that. He'd never heard of a chakra suppression seal evaporating off a person's body like that before, but it was probably expecting too much of the poor seal to try and contain a tailed beast.

"No, these just kind of slow it down. Now, instead of just suddenly puffing up into the giant fuzzball, he'll hiss like a crappy exploding tag for about 10 seconds, _then_ puff up into the giant fuzzball." That was real progress. He could certainly be trained to use that time to get out of the way. From the reports and his experience, most of the fox's body appeared behind the boy, so he could orient his back away from anything he had to keep safe, and jump far enough away that the fox's face didn't touch anything as it formed, or even start working to counteract it. "Basically, see these curly patterns here?" he asked, indicating the part of the array. "That's just extra chakra paths in the seal flowing around, while returning back to where they'd originally leave. It's basically delaying it sort of like a drink in a curly straw."

His perverted but certainly skilled student began pulling out a larger scroll. As he opened it, the Hokage saw the absurdly complex seal drawn out along it. "Honestly, on both of these, most of the work was making them as compatible with the existing seal as possible, or as innocuous to other seals as possible," the seal master explained.

"This seal is some of my best work, I think. The intent of this is to help hold back the chakra, doing what Minato's seal was originally doing to help replace the faded part, and expanding on it to deal with the surplus of demonic chakra compared to the expectations of the original design," he began.

"I couldn't just make more of Minato's because that's self-contained, and anything running on the exact principles would interfere." He continued for quite a bit, explaining exact compatibility issues, problems that he solved during the design, why he needed to use ten feet of scroll to hold a seal, and how that ten-foot seal was going to be placed on a slightly-short child ("It compacts! Hide the details!"). When he was talking about the complexities of sealing, Jiraiya was almost like a different person.

"Now, the most important bit in practical terms is how the seal gets powered," the seal master continued. "Something like this would normally just use the boy's own chakra, but his is polluted, basically, by the demonic chakra. Even more so now, as you can see by his eyes. But, we still need human chakra; nature chakra might be nice to use some time, but we'd need some very specific training to do that safely. Until then, the best we can do is these." Here, he indicated a very unusual section of the array.

"_These_ are the real key here. These draw chakra from _other people_. Imperceptibly so and from a little bit of range, mostly to get a small amount to form a pattern, which his own chakra can be molded by this same seal to better match. Then, the seal has power, can hold a lot more tailed beast, and hold it better. Some foreign human chakra should keep him going for about a week before it needs to be refreshed, otherwise the seal will stop working, in which case it'll just be like he was without it. The hissing delay seal will work without this one.

"Now the kicker: It'll work better if he gets a bit of variety. Tenzo's a good kid, but if Naruto's just sticking with him, it won't be as effective as if he gets some human interaction with the general population," he explained finally.

Hiruzen saw a circular problem here. "Unfortunately, _until_ it works well, having him interact with the general population is a safety hazard."

"Well, ramp up his human interaction. Start with some visitors. He was close to a few people, right? Have some of them come and visit, maybe. You were also planning on putting him on a team, right? Have him start doing some exercises or simple missions with the team, maybe."

Hiruzen agreed. "This sounds all well-designed and effective. Anything else I should know about them?"

Jiraiya sighed before continuing to explain. "Yeah, they won't be perfect. Minato sacrificed his _soul_ to make the existing seal and it wasn't enough. The tailed beast form's triggered by some kind of emotional change, up or down. Even when the new seal's at full power, anything really strong will probably still get through, and, of course, a fully willing transformation would still occur."

The man stopped to breath a moment, then continued. "Also, it's not fully combat hard. Hits can disrupt the perfect function of the seal, so expect transformations in combat, though I don't expect him to be in too much direct combat for too long. Finally, he'll still have to practice that demonic chakra shaping and control from before to work with this seal."

"Very well," the old Hokage said in acceptance. "One more question. Is there any kind of test you've done on these?"

"I've tested parts to make sure they do what they should, but I haven't found any other jinchuriki suffering from spontaneous tailed beast transformations to practice it on."

"Fair enough," the Hokage supposed. "Well, are you ready to apply these wonderful seals?"

[Outside Konoha]

A blond jinchuriki, in human form, was attempting to remain calm by meditating. But, he calm was interrupted when he heard footsteps, and not those of his wood-controlling sensei. Opening his eyes he saw the third Hokage, and the seal master, Jiraiya-sama! Unable to curb his excitement, he just yelled "Back!", and a moment later he was no longer in human form.

But, even that wasn't enough to dampen his spirits. Jiraiya was here, with a solution. He leaned the fox's head down and rested on its chest to listen closely.

"Hey, brat! I see you're excited to see me," the seal master commented wryly. The indicated brat smiled sheepishly, though to those unfamiliar, it just looked as menacing as any other look from a tailed beast.

"We can't very well do much like this, though. Tenzo!" called the Hokage. The ANBU approached. But, instead of simply having him undo the fox form now, the Hokage called for them to move further out. "We're dealing with seals that cannot be fully tested. If this goes awry, I want us out of sight of Konoha." That was no trouble for the fox-formed boy.

The details were explained as they moved. Once they were sufficiently far out, the preparations began. As the ANBU reverted the jinchuriki's transformation again, the Hokage prepared a seal to keep them in the area. The blond shinobi was lost in his own thoughts, after hearing the details. He was going to be normal, or at least a lot closer than he'd been lately. He'd get to talk to friends, and soon! And he wouldn't have to worry about those thoughts again.

Soon enough, the reversion was done, and the completely human boy, his grey clothing slightly melted, was prepared for the sealing. The ANBU grew a very plain-looking room with no visible outside views. The jinchuriki was laying on his back in the center, sans shirt, as the seal master, or at least the seal master's clone carrying the real seal master's ink and brush, began to work.

He had to just stay calm. Think about nothing. Meditate. Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing as minutes passed. Nothing as an hour passed. How much time had passed actually passed? Think of nothing. Time is nothing. He counted. He could count without any excitement. He could count for this. This was when it counted to be able to count. To think of the numbers. Each one just a little higher. The feel of the brush on him was not important. The numbers were. The feel of chakra flowing around him wasn't important. The numbers were. Ignore, ignore, ignore. Count higher. From seven hundred and eighty-eight to seven hundred and eighty-nine.

He could only guess how much time had passed in the quiet room with no outside light. "Done!" yelled the cloned seal master suddenly, to the surprise of the laying jinchuriki. But the surprise didn't trigger anything. He began to stand back up and took an offered shirt from Tenzo-sensei who...wasn't wearing a mask. He had a plain, clean-shaven face with wide eyes, and wore a forehead protector that extended down the sides of his face. The boy committed the face to memory.

With tears in his eyes, he turned to Jiraiya, who wore a smile. "Th-thank you!" he said. It was all he knew to say, all he could say.

"No problem, brat. You're not a bad kid," the wonderful man responded jovially. "I _should_ tell you, though, your eyes are still weird looking. I guess that's a part of you now." That was okay; he could deal with looking a little unusual.

No more problems; he'd have to practice, still, but it was possible before, and it would be possible now. He'd talk to Iruka-sensei, Teuchi and Ayame, and some of his old classmates. Eventually, he'd meet his team and get to start doing missions as a real ninja! No more worries, like the last few days had just been a bad dream.

The Hokage entered the room, accompanied by the real Jiraiya, the former with a simple grin, the latter with a wide smile. Nothing to worry about at all. Not even...

...

Hiding things didn't work before. Hiding things wouldn't work now. "Old man, I've got to tell you something. Something I...thought, earlier today, when I was transformed," he began. He explained what he'd been thinking then, through the point when he suddenly seemed to consider killing people for no reason besides their negative feelings.

The old man furrowed his brows in thought. "I'm not sure what to make of this. Naruto-kun, we are only starting to understand this sensing you've developed. You sense negative thoughts, in some way, stronger in the Nine-Tails' form, but I don't know why that could provoke such a reaction," he said. "But, thank you for telling me this," he said finally with a faint smile.

"Oh, one more thing!" said Jiraiya, walking up to him. "Give me your arm." The blond's left arm extended out to the man. The seal master took a small vial from his clothing and made a small cut on the arm, collecting a few drops of blood. The wound stopped bleeding at that point, and a few seconds later, the arm looked like it hadn't been touched. "I may have a use for this later, for purposes of sealing," he vaguely explained, sealing the covered vial in a scroll. The boy felt a very slight, trivial guilt from the man at this, so there was more to it than that, but nothing major. This man _had_ just done more for him than any single person before, as far as he knew.

The four shinobi began heading back to Konoha now, the ANBU causing the temporary structure to fade back into the earth as they left. While he was certainly still nervous, about people who would still fear him, and about some of his own thoughts, he held real optimism for the future, something he hadn't had nearly enough of since that night.


	7. A Small Reunion

A Small Reunion

[North of Konoha]

"Iruka-sensei?" asked a blond, seeing the scarred chunin for the first time in since that night.

"Hello, Naruto-kun," he said simply. "I'm sorry it took so long to visit you."

"Iruka-sensei!" he repeated.

"So, you're a ninja now?"

"Yeah, I even have the forehead protector," the blond responded, tapping the accessory proudly.

"I'm proud of you," he continued. "And...not just for graduating. I've heard what's going on, it's been tough."

The blond looked contemplative. "How are you doing?" the boy asked after a moment.

"Me? I'm fine. Still not up to 100%, but I'll get back to teaching in time."

The boy hesitated. Then, he looked at his sensei right in the eyes, and said: "You're lying."

Iruka sighed and considered what to say. "Really, Naruto, don't worry about me."

"You're lying. You're...you're not fine," the blond reiterated. "You're still hurt. I saw when you walked in. It's not how you normally walk."

"Please, Naruto, it's...not that bad," he continued. "You're still my favorite student, and one of my best friends."

"W-why?" the boy asked "You nearly died because of me! _Mizuki_ died because of me!"

"Mizuki was a traitor. He was once my friend, but no more," the chunin explained. "That he died is just a consequence of his own actions." Before he could continue, he was interrupted.

"He...he was? I mean, they said that, but...I can't really remember what happened there," the boy said, no longer able to make eye contact. "I thought...maybe were they just trying to make me feel better?"

"I was there, Naruto. Mizuki was a liar and a traitor to Konoha who tried to kill both of us," he said with finality. "You can recognize when I lie, right? You know I'm not lying now. You should've known when they told you, too."

"I..." the boy sighed. "You're right. I'm just, not sure what to say, to think about all this." Despite being a ninja and a powerful and dangerous jinchuriki, he didn't look very imposing now. "You almost died, and now you're still hurt, because I was stupid about Mizuki, and I don't even remember how it happened, just that I keep turning into a monster now, and I could hurt you again, or someone else." The boy's voice began to get hoarse. "I don't know what really happened to you, just that I couldn't see you for so long. And now that I get to see you again..." He paused, not sure how to continue. "...you're afraid of me. I can feel you're afraid of me."

Iruka didn't know what he could say to that. "I know how the new seal's supposed to work. I'm supposed to be near people, and you're just a person who's come here to help with it," he accused.

"Naruto..."

"Will you ever not be afraid of me? Will you ever be healthy again, for real?" the blond asked.

The chunin had to think a time, but decided to be direct with his student. "No," he admitted. "I can't say I'll ever be without fear of you again, and I won't be going back to active duty again." The boy's expression fell. "Mizuki's shuriken was hard on my spine. While that _might_ have been fixable, I was then too close when you suddenly transformed, and the chakra poisoning aggravated my condition." The boy tensed, and the chunin saw tears forming in his eyes. "But, I do _not _regret what I did." The look changed, surprise and confusion now evident.

"If I knew then what I knew now, I would still jump in front of that attack, Naruto," the chunin continued. "You feel negative emotions, I've heard this." The blond nodded slightly. "That's...sad, you know?" The blond was still not sure what to think of Iruka's words. "You feel the worst of people, their worst thoughts, their saddest reactions.

"But there's more to them, to me, than our negative emotions. You, I, and everyone else has positive emotions, too. Just because you don't feel them doesn't mean they aren't there; don't get stuck on the negative you feel.

"I _am_ scared, certainly; it'd be stupid not to be at least wary around someone with that much power and such limited control possible, and I still had memories of the Nine-Tails' attack from years ago. And I don't like being pulled off active duty permanently. But despite all of that, I came here, of my own free will, and _not_ just for you or your seal's stability. I came here for me, because you mean a lot to me, and I wanted to see you. You can check that."

The blond just stared for a time. Eventually, though, he went up to his sensei and embraced him.


	8. A Big Addition to the Team

A Big Addition to the Team

[Team 7's Training Ground]

A certain black-haired boy been assigned a short-handed team, promised that a third member would be added when he or she was ready. He'd managed to somehow get through his cyclops of a sensei's bell test with just the help of a useless fan girl with a hair color that he swore couldn't be natural. He'd only won by offering her food as she was tied up uselessly to a post before what was supposed to be their final chance.

Since then, his team had been assigned various chores called missions. He was _stagnating_. What was the _point_ of all this? Where _was_ his damn third teammate? He needed to do _real_ missions, get _real_ experience. So he could finally kill _him_, and move on with life without constantly having to watch his back.

And then, finally, after _weeks_ of useless D-rank "missions", his sensei had informed him and his pink-haired teammate that their third member would be joining them soon.

"_Oh, and by the way, your teammate is that jinchuriki you've heard so much about,_" his sensei had said, with the same tone he used for his increasingly unlikely excuses for his own tardiness. It might've been comical, if not for the actual implications of the statement.

He hadn't had any family to come to him the night the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox reappeared in Konoha. He had just sat upright on his bed, pressed in by the terrifying presence, until an ANBU agent had picked up him and taken him to a shelter, briefly mentioning the Nine-Tails.

But he hadn't so focused on that.

He wished he could say he had never felt anything like it before. To an extent, he hadn't felt anything exactly the same. But he'd felt similar once. That night. When _he_ killed Sasuke's family.

In a few days, it was like Konoha was back to normal. Like it hadn't nearly been wiped out.

And now. Now he or she was going to be on Sasuke's team. Was he terrified, to be near it? No, he was an Uchiha, he'd get over it and any other obstacle. Was he excited? More like apprehensive, he supposed. Did he see an opportunity? ...Maybe he did.

Could he call it his own revenge if he got it indirectly? Did it need to be his own revenge? He wasn't truly sure.

Putting his musings aside, as he was arriving at the training ground at the specified time. He had considered that maybe introducing a new teammate would be sufficient reason for his sensei to arrive on time, but clearly it was not the case. His brightly-haired teammate (the only one, at present; perhaps the demon container would have some kind of outlandish hair color as well) greeted him with something he completely ignored, and they soon sank into a silence; in his case, stoic silence; in her case, awkward silence.

[Training Ground 7]

The familiar, quiet training ground and her future boyfriend did nothing to settle Sakura Haruno's nerves. Her standard greeting to Sasuke-kun had been horribly stuttered, and she honestly reminded herself of Hinata. The boy had coolly ignored her, so he certainly didn't seem to mind her nervous disposition.

They were supposed to be meeting the jinchuriki, the container of the giant monster that had once laid waste to large sections of the city, slaughtered uncountable shinobi and citizens, and that could still occasionally be felt somewhere beyond the walls, and she was not what anyone would mistake for "ready" for it.

Sure, she was aware of the likely reasons, integrating the kunoichi or shinobi into the ranks as normal member, but really, couldn't they pick some _other_ team? Like, say, _any of them_? Please? She sighed, unaware of if Sasuke-kun would notice her sighing apparently out of nowhere.

Soon, she heard footsteps, and not those of her talented, quiet teammate, who was still standing still. Kakashi Hatake, Team 7's jounin-sensei, walked into the clearing, surprisingly close to the agreed time, accompanied by someone...very familiar. With the exceptions of sharper nails, thicker facial markings, a pair of red, slitted eyes, a surprisingly dull colored outfit, and as nervous of a disposition as her.

"Naruto!?" both she and Sasuke cried out.

[Mission Office]

The Hokage sat behind his desk, waiting to hand out a very important mission to a very specific team. Not that the task assigned by the mission itself was particularly special; just another D-rank task, in particular some work on a minor farm at the edge of town. Weeding a small field, as he recalled from the mission request.

No, it was supposed to be a test, or possibly a demonstration, of a certain rookie ninja. One blond-haired, grey-clad ninja had been working tirelessly to deal with his...problem for a few weeks now, since his own pride had undone all the progress he'd made. He couldn't control it completely by himself now, though perhaps he never really could.

His student's examination had at least turned up some information, though. The seal was originally designed to hold only about half of the Nine-Tails' chakra, probably either the yin or yang half, since that was probably the easiest way to split it in half rapidly. However, for whatever reason, _all_ of the fox's chakra, or very nearly all, at least, had been sealed. The seal was therefore overloaded, causing the raw chakra containment to be poor.

What Jiraiya still could _not_ explain, though, was what the seal did that prevented the Nine-Tails' will from bleeding through. Somehow, though, the seal clearly did that, to a level no jinchuriki seal before had been able, allowing the boy full use of the demonic chakra with (relatively) little risk.

While he had faith in his successor's work, though, the town as a whole only knew that the monster that had destroyed their homes and murdered their loved ones was only mostly contained a recognizable blond shinobi.

They needed proof. So, he had a mission inside of town to give them proof.

Precautions were taken, to be sure; he had set up a route for Team 7 from the main gate, to their training ground, to the office, and to the destination that consisted primarily of wider roads, and he'd had some ANBU on hand to discretely keep them fairly empty. The mission itself, as well, was mostly in a wide, empty field.

But even so, he was certain that this simple D-rank mission would give sufficient proof of their jinchuriki's stability, in emotion and form.

Finally, Team 7 arrived at the mission office. An uncertain looking boy with black hair, a nervous girl with pink hair who was rarely sneaking dreamy looks at the black haired boy and, more frequently, sneaking unsettled looks at her other teammate, and the jinchuriki himself, who was sneaking nervous looks at _everything_. And, of course, their mostly-masked captain, in person and on jarringly on time.

"Team 7, here to request a mission, Hokage-sama," Kakashi stated, in a manner that certainly appeared professional.

"Very well. I have a specific mission for your team today," he said. He grinned inwardly as he suddenly had the young Uchiha's attention. He continued the instructions with utmost outer seriousness, handing over a mission briefing file. "You're going to weed the field belonging to the Juyodenai family on the southeastern side of the village." And now he had the young Uchiha's displeasure, as well.

"Another D-rank?" he asked quietly, but incredulously. "Even now, with our entire team?"

The old man looked directly at the boy. "This is, in fact, a very important mission. It may seem simple, but it is of importance to the village, and furthermore, it is very important that Team 7 in particular is the one to undertake it." The young man staggered slightly under the God of Shinobi's glare.

"Now, off you go. I expect a full report afterwards," he finished.

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" the four varied voices of Team 7 stated, as they turned to leave, with the silver-haired jounin leading the way. And, unknown to at least two of them, accompanied by a cat-masked ANBU agent.

The mission assigned, the Hokage leaned back. _I just sent the single most powerful and dangerous shinobi in the world off to weed a garden,_ he thought, allowing himself an amused grin. He truly was the God of Shinobi.

[Juyodenai Farm]

Not to say that Sakura was no longer nervous about the jinchuriki, but so far, nothing had happened in particular. It was a fairly large field, and the work was relatively mindless, if physically taxing after awhile. She had thought on what the Hokage had said. Why her team in particular for this mission?

_Of course,_ she thought morosely. _The jinchuriki._ It was a simple mission, in town, to get people used to the boy. And he would take some getting used to, she could attest to that, though he wasn't so bad thus far, really.

Then there was the matter of his curious introduction to the time. Back when they'd first met as a team, minus the blond demon container, they'd each had to come up with likes, dislikes, hobbies, and a dream. While hers had generally revolved around her Sasuke-kun (save for dislikes, which were reserved for Ino-pig, and since then, she'd actually talked with her once-friend a bit more; she seemed interested in being a friend-once-more...), he had stated that he dreamed of...not being feared.

Not exactly what she pictured from a mighty demon-wielding shinobi that turned into a giant monster. But...hmm. Sasuke-kun had moved to the far end of the field from her, but she wanted to finish her current section before she wandered close to him again. Her next pass would take her fairly close to her new teammate, though. Maybe she should say something...?

"H-hey," she said lamely, as her work brought her past where the jinchuriki was reaching for a stubborn-looking weed, though he managed to uproot it with no difficulty before looking up at her.

"Hey," he responded, equally lamely.

She wasn't sure how to word her question so she didn't sound rude. "So...I was wondering-" _why you aren't an insane monster_ "-er, how it is, being-" _a monster_ "-well, a jinchuriki." Well, it wasn't an outright accusation of evil or anything, though he did still seem distraught.

He seemed to take some time to decide how to respond. "I guess it's...frustrating," he said. She was a bit confused by that response. "You're my teammate, and will be for awhile, so I should tell you." He seemed to be gathering himself.

"Tell me what?"

"...You've seen how I transform," he started. After a moment, he added, "Or, I guess you've felt it." She nodded, remembering that night, and the ensuing days when she assumed he'd been practicing using the demonic power. "I don't like to. I've never done so on purpose." Wait, what?

"But, you've used it a lot! I...I thought you were practicing with it, practicing how to use it in battle," she said, taken by surprising by the most recent revelation.

The blond boy shook his head. "Maybe slightly, but for the most part, no. I've been training with it, but not to try and use it," he clarified. "I guess, you could say I've been practicing to try and _not_ use it. If I have to use it, I've mostly practiced not being too clumsy." She looked at him with confusion. "I said before, I've never transformed into...it...on purpose. It's been caused by things I couldn't control then, that I've only recently gotten control of."

This wasn't what she expected. The jinchuriki she'd been worried about, the ninja with demon powers capable of destroying a village, was actively _avoiding_ using them? Was transforming _unwillingly_? She wasn't sure how much of it she believed, but...maybe he was just another person, dealing with something larger than himself. Like she was, she supposed.

"Thanks," he said, finally, as he continued his bit of gardening.

It was probably about time for her to get moving, too. They had this mission to do, though she wondered if that short conversation-about a dozen sentences-may have been more important.

Eventually, she finished her section, and she moved off to another part of the field, away from her blond teammate, and toward Sasuke-kun.

A bit later, though, she saw someone else coming. Not Sasuke-kun, at work in the field near her, or even Kakashi-sensei, though. It wasn't even Juyodenai-san, who was waiting, most certainly not cowering, in his home beyond the edge of the field.

It was a villager, she supposed, with dark, brown hair, an unreadable expression on his face, and on closer inspection, a missing left arm. He was heading over to her newest teammate...which raised a red flag in her head.

She started approaching, but he had begun to speak already.

"So after everything, you think you can come back here?" he started, expression still flat. "Just walk back into town like nothing's happened?"

Her teammate remained quiet in the face of the villager's rhetorical questions.

"I don't care what the Hokage thinks. You're a danger to all of us," the villager continued, his expression's neutrality fading.

Sakura arrived at the scene and spoke up. "Sir, I'm not so sure he is," she began quietly.

"I don't care what _you_ think, either," he said, turning his developing glare to her now. "He's a monster, or close enough to one."

"He's...just another ninja, like me," she decided after a moment. "He's supposed to _protect_ the village, and he seems inclined to do just that," Sakura continued, ignoring what the man was saying.

"Like _hell_. You believe that? That he's 'just another ninja'? Then why's he been kept out of the village so long, hmm?" the man continued, no longer looking very much like the unassuming villager that had first arrived. "Run home, little genin. I thank you for your service to the village, but you shouldn't be here right now."

"What's the big problem!?" she asked irately.

"'What's the big problem?'" he responded derisively. "The 'big problem' is a _building-sized demon with nine tails that crushed my home and killed most of my family thirteen years ago!_" The venom in his voice was staggering, and Sakura felt pushed back by his words. This couldn't be a civilian she was talking to.

"I _know_ that you're here to prove that you can hold that thing back," he began again, turning back to her blond teammate, who's head had tilted forward, making his expression unknowable. Strangely, he hadn't said a word in his own defense this entire time. "_I'm_ here because I know you _can't_. You get agitated, and it shows up, like it did a few weeks back; like it's been doing since then. The Hokage thinks he's so powerful, he can just put a person-shaped leash on a tailed beast, but _that doesn't fucking work_." His voice was quite loud now. Her teammate was starting to look...tense. Was this a bad sign...?

Wait, the villager seemed to know things. It, the fox, shows up when he gets agitated...!? This man was trying to get him to turn into the fox _here and now!?_ _That's_ why he said she should leave!

"You're going to get us killed!" she shrieked at him, backing away slightly.

"Leave while you still can! If my death is all it takes to keep him out of the village forever, then that's a fair deal to me!" he yelled back, a look of determination on his face.

She should leave. Now. Right now. She really should. "I'm not leaving," she said, surprising herself.

"I have friends here," he said, more quietly now, as if to explain himself to her. "I had friends in the third war, that died to a jinchuriki that went berserk. He'd seemed perfectly normal, right up until it happened. Hell, he even killed several of his own allies!" His voice was growing again at, but fell for the next sentence. "It's not going to happen to the friends I have now." His voice was quiet, but she could hear the emotion behind it. She moved to try and pull him away, but her teammate raised his arm, to stop her.

Now he turned back to her teammate, to try again to force a response. "It's time, monster. You're a goddamn _lit explosive tag_; you can't keep pretending to be normal. It's just a matter of time before you kill someone you shouldn't, accident or no." He paused a moment, expecting a reaction, but getting no more, he continued. "Well guess what? It won't be _my_ village you put in danger any more." Faster than Sakura could react, the man drew out a kunai with his right arm and lunged toward her teammate.

But he didn't hit anything. The young genin had dodged to the side and caught his only arm. But the man was not deterred, very quickly kicking him. Her teammate took that hit, unable to dodge it as well while holding back the blade, and it knocked the boy down, resulting in the man's arm being freed. But her teammate again motioned for her to stay back.

Then she heard it. A _hissing_ sound. The one Kakashi-sensei had briefed the team on. He was prone, now, so what direction the fox body could form in was not known. She began to back away, and then...

The sound stopped a few moments after it had begun, as her teammate tensed. Finally, for the first time in this confrontation, he spoke. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said, his voice showing the regret he stated, "but I'm not leaving. I'm stronger than you think; I won't be gotten the better of by some damn fox demon. I hope you won't always be so afraid of me."

"Is...is that what you think!?" the man bit back angrily in disbelief, stepping toward the prone genin, not noticing someone approaching him from behind while he tried to draw back his arm. "You think _you_ can face down the Nine-Tails?" He hadn't noticed the ANBU behind him yet. "You think _you_ have a stronger will than a centuries old demon of destruction!?" The ANBU had taken his arm and had a hold of him. He _had_ to be aware now, but he was still ranting at Sakura's teammate. "You think _you_ won't be like other jinchuriki!? You think _you_ will never become a comrade killer!?" Now he was being carried away, finally out of earshot.

Sakura released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. It was over.

"Thanks again," her new teammate said, preparing to right himself. Only now did she get a good look at his face. He had tears in his strange eyes, but a faint smile on his face. She wasn't sure how close she would become to the boy, but he certainly didn't seem as dangerous as jinchuriki had been made out to be.

She offered a hand.

[Mission Office]

Kakashi had an interesting report for the Hokage. They'd successfully completed the D-rank mission to weed the Juyodenai family field. His new teammate had shown impressive aptitude at pulling out the stubborn plants.

Also, there was a curious incident in which one former ninja, later identified as Katayoroi Akado, had approached and begun talking with his blond student, having somehow gotten through the subtle ANBU blockade around the area. The conversation eventually evolved into a physical altercation, before the man was arrested. He'd been prepared to intervene, if necessary, but noticed his own foot caught on a root, one that he was certain hadn't been there when he had first arrived.

Later, it turned out that several others had also gotten through and were watching the altercation. News would likely spread about it through town. While D-rank missions weren't exactly high-secrecy assignments, it was generally accepted that, at least as practice, the details of even D-rank missions should remain at least somewhat secret. This one was being discussed everywhere.

He only said one thing, as he personally turned in the report to the Hokage.

"You knew that would happen, didn't you."

The only answer he got from the God of Shinobi was a faint grin.


	9. A Big Mission

A Big Mission

[Hokage's Office]

The third Hokage was reviewing a mission request with suspicion. The front desk had mentioned that the man who brought it in seemed nervous, though the man was also certainly quite drunk.

The description had seemed fairly ordinary. A civil engineer, or maybe an architect, avoiding using the man's self-given title of "super bridge builder", wanted to be escorted to his home country of the Land of Waves, presumably to protect him against bandits on the way.

Several things tipped him off that there may be more to it. First, the nervousness. Second, why was the man even here, if he was supposed to be off building a bridge in the country he was getting escorted back to? Third, the geopolitical implications. Not as evident at first, but when the Hokage delved deeper, he saw that all shipping to and from the Land of Waves was handled by the Gato Company. This bridge would cut off that company, so would be something of a setback for them. He was also aware that the company was shady at best, while murderous and criminal at worst. The Hokage suspected, as well as suspected that the architect suspected, that the Gato Company had put out a hit on him.

But rather than just turning it down, he saw an opportunity. The Land of Waves would certainly be indebted to the Konoha if they were to help with the bridge. Maybe he should call for some favorable trade agreements with Konoha and the Land of Fire as a whole as the price for a higher-ranked mission.

On the other hand... as a C-rank, it was applicable to genin teams, and he had a genin team that was due for a higher ranked mission. It also happened that this particular genin team was packed for bear, so to speak. This genin team also had specific need to get through some troubling emotional issues that were more likely to come up on a mission with probably violent opposition. Furthermore, sending a genin team would set the man's nerves on edge; a bit of payback for lying about mission parameters.

So, he'd send this particular "C-rank" mission to one Kakashi Hatake. He'd take his team to pick up the man. Eventually. Again, a bit of payback for lying about mission parameters.

[Team 7 Meeting Place]

"So, he's always like this?" questioned a blond shinobi.

"Yeah, pretty much," responded a pink-haired kunoichi, who looked up from sneaking glances at the quiet third member of Team 7. They were referring, of course, to their cycloptic sensei, who was now two hours late. "It's something about elite jounin, I think. They're tough enough that they can get away with quite a bit of nonsense without getting called on it." She thought a moment. "Without getting called on it by somewhat that can do something about it, anyway."

The blond wondered if, by that logic, he had carte blanche to sleep in as long as he wanted.

Plans for extra sleep were interrupted by an approaching jounin-sensei. Kakashi, specifically. _Does Tenzo-sensei count as a jounin-sensei? He's my sensei, and he's a jounin..._ he mused.

"Yo," said the tardy man simply.

"You're late!" yelled the kunoichi.

"You're late," said the blond shinobi with some minor annoyance.

"Hn," accused the black-haired shinobi.

"Sorry, I was distracted by a rock," he explained matter-of-factly, his eye curved to imply a sheepish smile.

"Liar!" yelled Sakura.

"No, it's the truth for a change, even if it sounds dumb," the jounin explained.

"You've just admitted that the rest of the time your excuses are just B.S.," Sakura noted with irritation.

Their sensei ignored it and just continued. "I've got a surprise for you all today," he said cheerfully. "We're going to pick up a C-rank mission!"

Something above weeding a field, then, though that last mission _was_ surprisingly intense for a D-rank. But from the looks of his teammates, it was almost as if he'd announced their field promotions to chunin.

"It's about time," intoned Sasuke, the first time the blond had heard him speak real words since he'd arrived this morning.

[Mission Office]

Their client wasn't a terribly impressive man. A drunk old man with a straw hat and not very much respect for the team that was going to be escorting him.

"That short blond kid with the weird eyes, he ev'n a ninja? He looks pretty wimpy." The short blond kid with the weird eyes was sure the man at the mission desk was trying hard not to laugh at the irony.

And so the 4 members of Team 7 set off from the gate and headed south, toward the coast and the country beyond it, along with Tazuna, the "super bridge builder" (either a super builder of bridges or a builder of super bridges; the jinchuriki was uncertain). Also, at a distance where most of their entourage would not notice, they were followed by an ANBU with a cat-like mask, by the Hokage's suggestion. The blond certainly didn't object; like hell was he going to get transformed early on and spend the rest of the multi-day mission as a tailed beast.

[On the Road]

Beyond Konoha, in a southerly direction for once, the jinchuriki took in the sights, smells, and sounds of the unfamiliar territory, the latter two senses having been brought more to his thoughts since the recent events. Different animals with different scents and different sounds; he almost might not have minded being in the fox's form right now, though he'd prefer if he could somehow have the ability of the fox's powerful nose and large and admittedly fairly ridiculous ears.

Come to think of it, he'd seen actual, ordinary foxes before, and from the reflections of the Nine-Tails' form he'd seen on still water, the ear sizes were not really similar. Nor was much of the body shape similar above the torso. It was more like a Nine-Tailed Fox-Rabbit-Person-Thing, though he supposed that was way too much to say. Not that that had stopped them from calling another tailed beast a "Five-Tailed Dolphin-Nosed Horse".

His musings of the different countrysides they were travelling through was put on hold by something... peculiar. He faintly felt what seemed to be...bloodlust, from nearby. All he could find was a few rocks strewn about, a puddle, and the trees and lesser flora around the road, but he wasn't about to discount it yet. In his time as a ninja, he had certainly learned that enemies could be hidden.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei," he began, but the man shushed him.

"Ignore it for now, there's something I want to see," he replied. If the sense was suspicious, Kakashi's response was a red flag. The man must've noticed something specific that the boy hadn't.

But even so, the feeling wasn't fading.

"Are you sure-"

"Yes," replied his new sensei before he could finish.

A short time later, he felt it coming from behind. Quickly.

Spiked chains suddenly wrapped around Kakashi, wielded by two ninja who had emerged from behind, one in a darker caped uniform, and one in a grey uniform about the same shade as the boy's own.

And then they pulled on their chains.

Where Kakashi once stood, there seemed nothing left but bloody bits. All that was left of the man. One of the few men that hadn't feared the jinchuriki, and who he had come to respect.

He lost all sense. When he heard the hissing, he wasn't surprised. He didn't try to stop it. He just jumped back to the side, out of the team's formation, vaguely noting their shocked expressions, as well as that of their ward. He rerouted the fox's chakra around the delaying seal once he was out of the way; the murderers would _**die**_. _**Now**_.

The demonic chakra released from the seal and enveloped him, developing in moments into the gigantic Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. The formerly confident looks eyes of the two attackers was now replaced with terror and panic. The darker-clothed one was slightly closer, and just barely managed to dodge as the fully-transformed jinchuriki swatted a clawed hand at him, but the force of the movement still launched him back against a tree with a loud _crack_.

Because he didn't try to be proactive. Because he didn't act when he thought there was danger. _Knew_ there was danger. Kakashi was now dead, because _he hadn't acted_.

The other had been sprinting and jumping away, but turned back at his brother's plight. "_Gozu!_" he yelled, horror evident in his voice, the panic of the sudden appearance of the tailed beast momentarily forgotten. That moment's compassion for his sibling resulted in his death, as the jinchuriki lunged and planted a claw down through his chest, through his heart, and through the ground below. "_G...grg..goz-_" the murderer gurgled, blood spilling from his mouth and his open wound.

The transformed boy watched impassively, but then he...seemed to see someone else.

"Naruto!"

In place of the dark-haired man with the Mist forehead protector and the breathing mask, he saw a silver-haired man with a Leaf emblem on his protector, pleading for help from Iruka.

He hadn't remembered the details of what had first happened when he transformed, or the events immediately leading up to it very clearly, but he had taken it badly when he had been told. Now, though, he knew. At that time, he had willingly used the power of the Nine-Tails to slay a person in anger.

"Naruto!"

Now, he had done so again.

He just kind of looked at the man he had just killed. The boy didn't think it had been long, but the corpse was now hardly recognizable. Just decaying bits of flesh barely clinging to the bones. Like Mizuki had been reduced to, before the Hokage had shown up. He swore he heard a faint, familiar crying coming from somewhere.

"_Naruto Uzumaki!_"

He tore the fox's gaze away from the melting remains on the left paw, and saw...Kakashi. Alive and unharmed. Behind him, Sakura lay in a fetal position, Sasuke had fallen shakily on his knees, a kunai in hand and his eyes strangely red, and Tazuna was outright unconscious, laying prone on the ground. He was too lost in the sight to notice that of the terrified feelings he sensed in the countryside, one was running away far too fast to be a civilian.

[On the Road]

_What happened!?_ The ANBU agent had seen and _felt_ the Nine-Tails, with all of it's vile killing intent brought to bear. _Kakahi-sempai was with them! Nothing should've happened! Why did he transform!?_ he thought in a panic. He arrived to find the killing intent fading, and the chakra presence receding.

The elder jounin was looking up at the fully transformed jinchuriki with a wide, serious eye. The client was knocked out. The other two genin were on the verge of nervous breakdowns. A short distance away, he saw what appeared to be a ninja from Kirigakure, broken on the ground. That man would never move unassisted again, the ANBU recognized. Beneath the jinchuriki's left paw, was...ugh. Chakra poisoning to the point that someone begins to _melt_ was not something a person willingly looked at for long.

"Naruto, what happened here!? Did they attack you!?" he demanded, indicating the paralyzed man and the...remains.

"**Th-they came from behind, and K-Kakash-s-sensei, he, he...**" the jinchuriki started, but he didn't seem able to finish.

Kakashi began to speak, rather sheepishly. "I...I wanted to know who they were after, s-so I used a substitution to appear to die to their attack," he explained. "I...thought the seal was tougher than that." The silver-haired jounin clearly looked chagrined.

He...faked his death in front of the jinchuriki? The one that had been starting to look up to him? The one that had a history of seal stability problems with emotional turmoil? "_K-Kakashi,_" he could barely speak, "_emotional stability, God dammit._" He thought for a moment he might get his point across via fear, but he doubted it'd work well against his senior colleague, especially while he was wearing his mask. _Well, nothing to do about it now,_ the ANBU thought with a sigh.

"I'll check my other students," the cycloptic jounin said. The ANBU noted that they were starting to move again. The raven-haired Uchiha was back on his feet, if still quite shaky on them. Also, his eyes looked different. _The Sharingan,_ the ANBU mused. _Well, at least _something _good came of this..._ The kunoichi was at least upright, tears flowing from her eyes, as Kakashi offered her a hand up, which she took. The Hokage had probably hoped that their introduction to the reality of their teammate's "condition" would be the result of a much more mundane transformation, rather than the horrifying episode they'd just encountered.

"**I-I'm...I'm sorry,**" the jinchuriki said, looking down at the state of his team, a look of pain at what he'd done apparent to the masked ANBU.

Not much else to do at the time, Tenzo began the jutsu to reduce the jinchuriki back to his normal state. Kakashi would have to deal with the client when he woke up, hopefully without full memory of certain S-rank secrets. His former captain would also get to deal with interrogating the one wrecked would-be assassin, and...cleaning up the other. Lastly, that man could deal with all the Konoha patrols that were almost certainly headed this way, to figure out what the _hell_ that was.

[Land of Waves]

A short shipping magnate was in the middle of a meal when he was interrupted by a note, brought in by one of his many lackeys. This was from his most dangerous lackey, a leader of a small band of missing nins formerly of Kiri. He read the note, expecting it to be news of the demise of an irritating bridge builder. Instead, he got bad news.

_Gato,_

_Your target has hired the god-damned Nine-Tails from Konoha. You don't pay me nearly enough for this, nor could you. Good luck in your endeavors; you'll need it._

_Zabuza_


	10. A Big Plan

A Big Plan

[Mansion]

A certain shipping magnate had a large problem. From the note Zabuza had left him (Gato was thankful for the surprising level of honor the Demon of the Mist had), his entire project in the Land of Waves was about to be wrecked by a legendary demon of hatred and destruction, which Konoha had somehow harnessed, and which that damn architect had somehow managed to hire. He only had a few options now, and he thought through them as quickly as he could, sweating profusely all the while.

The first, and his gut reaction said to go with this one, was to just write off this project. His best hired help, _A-rank_ help, had just basically said "_Oh hell no_" to dealing with this problem. He had no illusions that a bunch of hired goons, samurai, or whatever low-level missing nin he could pick up in the short time before the builder's arrival could do a damn thing to deal with this. He also had no illusions about what would happen if he just tried to keep business running while Tazuna's rent-a-pet was in the country, and he had no desire to get eaten.

His caveats, though, were still there. If Wave was left to its own devices, his involvement would start to come to light, hindering further operations, and if Konoha was willing to go _this_ far to help the Land of Waves, his operations could very well be in jeopardy in all of the Land of Fire, too. So, just leaving and never thinking about it again, despite the safety he expected, wouldn't be an ideal solution.

The second thing he thought of was hostages. If the demon was working for Tazuna, it would probably not be willing to let his family die. If the demon was controlled well enough that way. If he could guarantee the demon would leave after the hostages were taken. If he could _keep_ hostages long enough to be an effective defense. If he could guarantee that there were no others around helping Tazuna. If, if, if. Too many 'if's for Gato's taste, with his life on the line. No, just taking hostages was out. He wiped the sweat from his brow. No good options yet. Running away was still sounding like a good idea.

Wait, maybe it _was_ a good idea. Run away, but...come back. The fox was hired protection for the architect, not a permanent resident of Wave. He may just be there to escort him to the country, and could be leaving right afterwards. In that case...Gato could just come back after he was gone, stop the bridge's construction again, and get through this without a scratch.

On the other hand, if the fox stuck around for the bridge's completion, and didn't leave until after, he was hosed. Or wait, he wasn't. That "super bridge" wasn't any more super than any other building, despite Tazuna's claims to the contrary. Gato could just have it destroyed. He'd have to ask Zori about that; the somewhat smarter of his two samurai bodyguards had a little ninja training, though he had ultimately failed to make the cut to be a genin. However, he knew enough to use explosive tags, and Gato could afford _lots_ of explosive tags.

Or hey! Don't even bother getting rid of the bridge. Gato could just add a toll booth. Perfect! He could keep collecting all the tax he wanted on Wave's commerce, while he had fewer ships committed to the deal. And he didn't even have to _pay_ for it; that old man was making it for him pro bono! Get rid of the geezer after the bridge was built and opened, then the he won't be able to call back that old monster. Hah, there was a _reason_ Gato Company commanded the most respect and authority of any in the elemental nations, and _he_ was that reason. There were probably still some wrinkles to iron out, but he'd keep working at them.

"Waraji!" he called to his second samurai bodyguard. "I've got a plan forming. We're going out to visit some docks and some of our mercs. We've got to be quick with this."

[Land of Waves]

Salt and water. Salt water. And fish. That's what the Land of Waves smelled like, the jinchuriki determined. He'd been busy identifying what he could hear and smell, trying to take his mind off of...earlier in the trip. Things he could smell didn't last him very long, though, on a relatively narrow island surrounded by ocean.

Team 7 had cautiously and for varying reasons nervously entered the foreign country of Tazuna's residence. The elderly builder seemed to have some amnesia about what had happened on the trip. When he asked Kakashi what had happened, the jounin had simply said that they had been attacked, and Tazuna had passed out in fear during the attack. _Well, true enough, I guess, though it leaves out a few details,_ the jinchuriki had thought.

They met no further resistance since the two missing nins (determined from the hypnosis-based interrogation of the thankfully-living Gozu) from before had attacked, though the man mentioned that they were working for Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist, who had one more accomplice, and that their group had been hired as a whole by Gato to kill the bridge builder. Kakashi had had several _words_ with the man after that, but since then, they'd moved on.

Kakashi had also had several words, if much kinder ones, with the other two genin in his team. It took awhile to get them back on the trail, especially Sakura, and the boy could sense that they had only really served to bury her issues for the sake of the mission, rather than actually resolve them. Once they were back in Konoha... He didn't want to think of that for now.

Anyway, despite Gozu's information, neither Zabuza nor any accomplice had shown up on the rest of the trip, and now they'd brought Tazuna home. The man seemed relieved, as did his daughter, Tsunami, who greeted them as they arrived.

Tsunami, however, had some interesting news. "Gato's packing up and leaving," she said, not concealing her own disbelief of the news in her voice. "Something about better opportunities elsewhere, I guess, but it looks like everything may be going back to normal." The blond could feel a certain cyclops staring at him.

"Well! That's super!" exclaimed Tazuna, smiling widely. "Thank you for your help, Konoha ninjas! I can get back to making my super bridge now!" So it was the _bridge_ that was super.

"Hang on," cautioned the silver-haired jounin. "I'm suspicious about this. Why would he leave _now_?"

"He...he must've heard how good you guys were, and decided to take off," said Tazuna, a bit of worry creeping into his voice.

"Then, what will stop him from coming back as soon as we leave?"

Tazuna didn't have an answer for that, his previous joviality forgotten. "Can...can you stay until the bridge is done? Once it's built, we should be fine after that!" he pleaded.

Kakashi considered a moment. "We'll have to think about this. Team meeting!" he decided, motioning for the three genin to leave the building.

Once they were a distance from the house, Tenzo made himself known, as well, discretely hiding above in a tree. Kakashi began to speak. "So, Gato must know, somehow. Zabuza or his accomplice may have seen Naruto's little secret. Or felt it," he said, staring at the blond.

Said blond could've sworn he heard Tenzo subtly add something including "whose fault", but it was too quiet to fully hear.

Then Kakashi continued. "Zabuza never attacked, and he'd probably have done so if it was just a small group of ninja like this, so at least he's aware of the secret, but he may not be able to link it to a person," he noted. "What we _can_ say, though, is that Gato's scared. He either knows that there was a literal demon coming, or that Tazuna hired ninja, which he may have heard reports of, or he may just know that his missing ninjas all ran off without their paychecks."

"S-so, what should we d-do?" asked Sakura. The jinchuriki winced whenever she spoke; she'd developed a stutter like Hinata. It didn't help that he could clearly feel her fear the rest of the time, and knew it was his own fault.

The silver-haired jounin looked at the genin expectantly, Kakashi's sensei-mode active. The blond began to speak. "We could just stick around," he said. "Just keep them from returning before the bridge is done."

Sakura seemed to have something to say, but was hesitant, looking around, until Kakashi nodded at her. "C-couldn't they just d-destroy the bridge?" she offered reasonably. "A-after it's built, I-I mean. But maybe they won't, and we can just..." She trailed off a bit, clearly not wanting to disagree with the jinchuriki too much.

"No, Sakura's right," Sasuke began, raising the kunoichi's spirits visibly. She looked like she needed it, but the jinchuriki could feel that the Uchiha wasn't exactly "okay" right now, either; just hiding it better. "Even if the bridge is finished, Gato managed to take control of the country once before, and he could certainly do it again." The Uchiha stopped to consider for a moment. "We could find Gato and kill him." That was one solution, sure, though the jinchuriki wasn't very excited for it.

Here, Kakashi-sensei decided to chime in. "Just an FYI, extrajudicial killing of a semi-significant, technically civilian world figure isn't normally part of a C-rank, and it might be frowned on back home." The blond noted that he didn't discount it entirely.

"S-so we have to...outmaneuver him?" questioned Sakura. "F-figure out his plan, catch him in the act, f-force him to stay out of Wave?" Kakashi didn't respond, still in sensei-mode. Tenzo had vanished at some point, so he didn't have anything to add.

"Infiltrate them," Sasuke said suddenly, "with transformations as our disguise. We figure out what they know. What are they planning? If they're just going to show back up after we leave, we stay around, investigate more. If they're planning to just lie low, or run away while we're here, and then come back afterwards, then the mission's not really a success, even if technically escorted the builder here."

"If that's the c-case, then what? We still need a way to keep him from c-coming back," Sakura thought. "We can't stay here f-forever; they can j-just wait us out. We'd n-need some long term solution, for when we've left." Sakura's face brightened a moment. "A long-term c-contract. A contract that Wave would h-hire missions out from Konoha, in exchange for some priority," she realized, showing that the few advanced classes she'd gone to in the academy weren't for naught.

"If they get a l-long-term contract to only hire Leaf ninjas when they need to commission a, well, mission, they could get passive protection against these kinds of strong-arm tactics," she continued.

While his teammate's solution sounded promising, this had gone somewhat above the his head, and probably Sasuke's, too. Kakashi, however, could continue the discussion, and continued with a counterargument. "A contract like that is a two-way street. Sure, Wave could only hire Konoha for missions and that's something, but honestly, we're already the closest village, and Wave only has so many missions to hire out anyway. What else are we getting, that Konoha should give special treatment to Wave?"

Sakura jumped right on that. "The Land of Waves is historically relatively rich for its size," she remembered from history classes. "The poor state it's in, from what we've heard from Tazuna, is just because of Gato." Her stutter had faded out completely as she was deep in her thoughts, and the blond noted that her more internal fear was also falling somewhat. "A trade contract, or maybe just tribute as a protectorate; something like that should be reasonable. For all of this, though, we're going to need to talk to the Wave Daimyo."

"Wave has a Daimyo?" the jinchuriki wondered.

"Yes, Wave had a Daimyo. Lots of minor countries have Daimyos," Sakura replied to him. She hadn't even hesitated to talk back to him this time. "Anyway, talk to Tazuna. This bridge is supposed to be so important, so I bet we can get the Daimyo's blessing for some contracts to help in the long run."

"Hn," Sasuke responded with a shrug. "Still have to know what _they_ know."

"If they know about...the fox, then...?" the blond jinchuriki asked, worried about the answer.

"Then we go back to what I thought initially: kill them," the raven-haired shinobi replied simply. "S-ranked secrets need to be kept secret."

Kakashi-sensei decided to chime in again. "Just another FYI, the only thing still S-rank is the identity. Otherwise, we'd have a kill-on-sight for way too many people; the original incident overall wasn't something that could be kept secret." The blond noted that, again, he didn't discount killing entirely.

"So if they just know that it's around somewhere, but can't link it to any of us specifically, we don't have to kill," concluded the blond, a little less apprehensive now. "And then we can just do the contract-y stuff Sakura mentioned."

Sakura seemed a little peeved at having her brilliant, non-violent solution to the mission reduced to "contract-y stuff", but apparently chose not to say anything.

About then, Tenzo showed up again, carrying an unconscious man. "He was watching us from afar. He stopped hearing before we said anything too compromising, though he did hear vague mentions of a contract," he began to explain. "I interrogated him quickly, disguised as Kakashi-sempai; he doesn't know much, except that Gato's had people watching for Tazuna, and he knows that there are four ninjas accompanying him."

"Well, that's something. At least we know he's watching us now," Kakashi said. "Anyway, we've got a super bridge builder to talk to."

[Land of Waves]

Some time after gaining Tazuna's agreement, a raven-haired genin, currently disguised as a raven-haired goon several years his senior, had infiltrated one of the groups of mercenaries, along with his transformation-capable teammate and their sensei, after having spent some time watching them in secret to determine how to do so effectively. It turned out that they were exactly what they appeared to be, so he really didn't have to do much besides the jutsu and a less neutral expression. For infiltration of a hostile force, this was about as simple as it could be, but still, he was surrounded by multiple enemies that would likely attack him if discovered, so he couldn't get distracted.

And some distracting things had happened, lately. He had discovered that he'd rather fight Itachi blindfolded than fight his teammate, he had finally gained his Sharingan, his previously-assumed useless kunoichi teammate had shown impressive political acumen, and now his mission had taken this turn. But still, mission, advancement, improvement, to kill Itachi.

He overheard several things in the bar they were at, and overhearing was what he was on orders to do; Kakashi would strike up conversations casually, but he was only to speak if one of them spoke to him, or to teammates, and even then only in relatively coded terms.

So far, from what he'd overheard, he had learned a couple important things. "The boss was scared as hell, I mean, I've _never_ seen him sweatin' like that 'fore!" The boss, Gato, knew that he had very serious opposition. "Demons aren't s'posed to be real..." Gato had heard about the Nine-Tails, or some kind of demon, or maybe it was an oblique reference to Zabuza. "It's just what, four guys? What's the big deal? Why're we all so up in a huff about this?" They may not link the ninja directly to the Nine-Tails. Also, they didn't know about the jinchuriki's handler, a fifth ninja. "Think it's just overreacting. No demons or nothin'." Further proof, they did _not_ link the ninja to the Nine-Tails.

"Eh, Wave's kinda dingy, but I think I'll miss it," said Sasuke's sensei to one of the mercs, waiting at the bar.

"Don't worry too much. Keep quiet, but I heard from higher up, and I don't think we're really done here." _That_ quiet exchange was quite telling.

Later, his sensei was in another conversation. "But really, ninja? I don't like the idea of havin' to deal with 'em. They can, like, breathe fire and stuff, can't they?"

"Bah, you've listened to Zori way too much. Prick thinks he's so special... Ninja's just another kind of merc. The _better paid_ kind." _Also_ of interest. "Don't worry your hair off, you're already short on it. Boss always has a plan." Again, of interest, but way too vague. And yes, Kakashi's chosen disguise was balding pretty badly.

"Oh, we got a secret weapon or somethin'?"

"Eh, might be that. Not too sure on details, but if we can't get those ninjas to run off with their pay, he's got something to chase 'em off. Not muscle, though. Damn missin' nins... Heh, I just realized: our missin' nins are...missin'." Somewhat more specific, but still not getting what we wanted. But, probably not getting much more from this one. Also, what passed for cleverness among mercs left much to be desired.

Kakashi subtly gave a signal, and Team 7 slowly found excuses to break off and leave. They'd have to deal with whatever Gato came up with, but Sasuke was sure it wasn't anything they couldn't handle. Now, they just had to talk to the daimyo...

[Mansion]

Gato was quickly realizing something else could happen. That architect had arrived, escorted by ninja; four of them, from what his men had told him. No sign of any demonic foxes of any description. Ninja were people, people acting in the name of a village, and under the banner of a nation. Where had the demon gone? Had Zabuza just lied? Possibly, Gato supposed, but possibly not. Gato was aware that ninja villages sometimes had control of unusual creatures, sometimes through some kind of contract. One of those ninjas may be a summoner for the malevolent fox.

Regardless, Konoha ninja worked for Konoha, and Konoha was a part of the Land of Fire, though Gato knew the villages like to consider themselves equal to the nations they were in. The point was, if the ninjas' presence here could be a made a problem for the Land of Fire as a whole, there would be serious pressure for them to back off.

Now what could he do to get the ninjas out of the country? Hmm. Maybe there _was_ some merit to one of his previously-rejected plans. It was time for him to talk with the daimyo...

[Land of Waves]

"For conspiring to bring a demon known as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox into the Land of Waves, the Wave Daimyo has ordered all Konoha ninja banished from and barred further entry to the Land of Waves, effective immediately."

The declaration from the daimyo's advocate had them speechless. "Dammit." For the most part.

As they were being escorted to a dock to leave peacefully, with the pay difference to upgrade the mission to B-rank plus the surcharge for the bad intel, Kakashi discussed the exact implications. "If we stay around now, there will be repercussions for the Land of Fire," he explained. "If they make it clear that they don't want Konoha ninja in, then..."

"...then we could be seen as an occupying force," finished Sakura. "Then Konoha is seen as an invader to a foreign land, and accusations of imperialism get thrown at Konoha, and the Land of Fire, which distances itself from us, and cuts our funding."

"We'll continue this discussion later," remarked their sensei, as they were brought onto a boat. If nothing else, they didn't have to fear too much at this point; kicking out the ninja from Konoha was one thing, but killing them after they finished an official mission would bring down a lot of force from the village.

Their mission parameters were technically complete, having escorted Tazuna home safely, though the extended protection wasn't included, it could reasonably be argued that the terms were fulfilled, due to Gato supposedly leaving, as far as the daimyo was concerned. That said, despite technical success, the whole affair certainly left a bad taste in their mouths.


	11. A Big Crisis

A Big Crisis

[Fire Coast]

Considering they had technically just completed their first C-rank-turned-B-rank mission successfully, Team 7 didn't look very satisfied.

The kunoichi looked puzzled. "The reference to the fox," she started, "has to be because he was contacted by Gato. There's no other reason he'd know."

"Then Gato must have some kind of leverage on him," concluded Sasuke. "They weren't friends ahead of time; the daimyo agreed to the bridge in the first place. Maybe a bribe, or maybe blackmail."

The trio's sensei weighed in a bit here. "It could really be either way. Gato's known to Konoha as a pretty shady guy."

The blond jinchuriki didn't have as much to offer to the discussion. It was a little annoying, actually; he felt pretty useless here. Also, it didn't help that his presence, whether they knew it was specifically him or not, was the excuse used to kick them out. He couldn't come up with any clever plans like Sakura, nor could he really understand all the implications of what was going on here.

"If, and that's a fairly big _if_, the daimyo kicked us out due to blackmail," began Kakashi, "then we _might_ be able to figure out what Gato's got against the man." That was...fairly conditional. "Basically, I don't think any of you want to leave Wave as it is now, do you?"

The kunoichi shook her head, no doubt remembering what the people on the street had been like. They'd had a chance to see them before their infiltration was underway, and it was...bad. Not enough food, too-poor of spirits, even with the news that Gato seemed to be leaving. The blond jinchuriki shook his head, not happy about letting this failure stand. The raven-haired shinobi grunted and shook his head slightly, his exact reasoning still a mystery to the blond.

"Well, we'll head back. Sneakily, like ninjas. Imagine that."

"How...how are we going back?" asked the kunoichi tentatively.

_Tenzo-sensei_, the blond concluded mentally.

"My colleague from the ANBU has alternative transport available, once the morning fog sets in again," said Kakashi with his mysterious eye-based smile.

Probably a freshly-grown boat, with some manner of wood-style-based propulsion, the jinchuriki supposed.

[Fire Coast]

Before sunrise the next morning, when the fog had settled over the sea again, the jinchuriki's suspicions were confirmed when the assembled Team 7 saw, floating on a boat near the shore, the blond's favorite sensei (not to knock Kakashi or Iruka, but Tenzo was important for some very practical reasons, and had helped him greatly through recent troubles).

They had a plan. Infiltrate the Land of Waves itself, this time, under transformations or, in the blond's case, plain old disguises and stealth. Determine the daimyo's motivations, and if they were solvable. The jinchuriki was instrumental here. Rather than trying to actually get into the daimyo's estate, he could get nearby and focus on his negative emotion sensing. If the daimyo was feeling primarily fear, it was likely blackmail. If not, bribery. If the latter, there was nothing to be done. If the former, they'd have to investigate more closely. They'd leave this to Kakashi-sensei, as the most experienced infiltrator in their team, since being discovered _now_ could have serious long-term consequences. From there on, they'd have to reconvene and decide if they could do something.

They filed onto the wooden boat Tenzo had prepared, and set off quietly for the Land of Waves once again.

[Land of Waves]

The Wave Daimyo's estate wasn't a remarkably fancy building, nor particularly well-guarded. A few guards, though the blond couldn't say if they were native guards or Gato's, were easily evaded as the boy approached the estate. The building was designed for a family, but when he felt inside, he could only feel negative emotion from one source. It was overwhelmingly fear. Fear of serious loss.

'Fear', he signalled to his silver-haired sensei when he returned to the team.

Kakashi went off in his deeper investigation, his disguise that of one of Gato's goons. Somewhat surprisingly to the blond, this was sufficient for the guards to allow him in. He supposed Kakashi had identified one of the higher-ranking goons at some point. He supposed the allegedly permanent withdrawal was still underway, so a major goon still being around wasn't too much suspicion.

[Land of Waves]

The official sensei of Team 7 returned some time later to the previously determined meeting point with a "Yo" and a description of what he found, written on a scroll.

"So, it's blackmail, like Naruto thought; good job on that, by the way," he began. "In particular, the blackmail material is the Wave Daimyo's family: his wife Keiko, his mother Haru, and his daughter Kimiko."

He then produced photographs of the two in front of a wall with plain papering, both holding a recent publication to give proof of the date. "They were taken recently, the women and the photographs that is, in the time period when we were first on the island." Kakashi had gotten some fairly detailed info.

"Gato threatened that 'something real unfortunate' might happen, if the daimyo didn't get the ninjas off of Wave soon." Kakashi had found...Gato's specific quote? "Gato _also_ said to let the bridge building just commence as planned. It was in his interests, he said."

"Their exact locations aren't known, but we _do_ know that Gato's checking up on it," the silver-haired jounin continued. "It's essentially a dead man switch. If 'something real unfortunate' happened to 'that short, fat fuck', then those three would be dead." What...what was on that scroll, anyway? How did Kakashi decipher all this very specific detail, down to _actual quotes_ in so little time? The blond tried to lean in for a closer look, only for Kakashi to pull it in, where he couldn't see.

"So, mission parameters are: find the Wave Daimyo's wife and mother and bring them back unharmed, along with any other Wave citizens Gato may be holding hostage in this manner, and then, if possible, apprehend Gato himself," he finished. Then, as an afterthought: "I should note, this mission ranks somewhere between B and A due to complexity, even with no significant threat of enemy ninja, and _certainly_ A-rank in political importance." ...Mission? Rank? The blond caught a glimpse of the scroll. It was...a damn mission request. With the Wave Daimyo's signature and everything, and a specific fee amount, to be paid upon completion. Kakashi hadn't "investigated" a damn thing; he had just straight up asked the man. The jinchuriki couldn't decide if it was stupid or brilliant.

"Are you sure you wish to do this?" he asked of them. Three nods of heads, and then an answering eye-smile. "Then, let's go. Congratulations, Team 7; you get to save a princess on your first outing from the village."

Huh. The Daimyo's daughter counted, the blond supposed.

[Land of Waves]

The search was under way, but pretty fruitless, so far. Kakashi had summoned dogs (apparently something the man could do) in order to track the hostages by scent, since the jinchuriki's equivalent wasn't working very well in that country. That had lead them fairly quickly to...a dock. And a boat on the dock, clearly devoid of the hostages.

"Of course," sighed their silver-haired sensei. "He took them off Wave entirely."

"To where?" asked Sakura reasonably. "Geographically speaking, there's not much but Wave to reach with a boat like this. The Land of Fire, maybe, but why would he take the hostages to a location where his enemies have more authority?" Reasonable enough. Wave was off the southern coast of Fire; for a long ways in either direction, Fire was the only thing around. If they went west a really long ways, they'd eventually get to the Land of Rivers, maybe, but not in a boat of the size they had found. "They've got patrol boats, even if there are a lot fewer and they've stopped harassing people. Probably around under excuse of 'overseeing the withdrawal'. It may have just been easier to move them via boat than on land, especially if they weren't cooperative."

"So...just search all of Wave?" wondered the blond.

"Looks like it," responded the sensei.

They'd then moved on to check what they'd identified before as typical gathering points for Gato's mercs, and hadn't found what they were looking for; they hadn't even found mercs. The blond hadn't felt any significant fear in the defensible areas while they were slinking quietly around, nor had Kakashi's dogs picked up any other trace. Nothing near Gato's mansion, either. Unrelated to the search itself, they had also checked on Tazuna while they were around, but found the family of three essentially as they were before, though the jinchuriki definitely felt looming fear over them. At least _they_ hadn't been caught up in this hostage crisis.

"This is taking too long," Sasuke said finally. "There's too much of Wave to just keep scanning like this; the scent trail won't last forever."

"Sasuke brings up an excellent point," remarked Kakashi. "We need a way to search a wider area more quickly." He looked carefully at the jinchuriki now. "I can think of one..." What was...

...oh. "Umm," the blond began, "I'd...I'd rather...not..." he finished weakly.

"Your sense range is greater while transformed. If you _really_ push it, how much do you think you could cover?" he asked.

"W-wait, you're going to have him transform?" asked Sakura suddenly. "H-here? In the middle of a foreign country, one we're supposedly barred from entering?" 'Near me?' the blond imagined her adding, with a frown.

"Why not? It gets us what we need, lets us find the princess, and the...um...queen, and, err, older queen...what does the rest of the daimyo's family count as?" he continued, getting a little lost in his own swiftly-collapsing metaphor.

He hadn't really tried to think of it, before. He'd really rather _not_ sense so many negative emotions, but he supposed his full range was probably quite high. "I...I don't really know about the full sensing range; I've not tried it."

"Anyway, I bet it'll let us find the daimyo's family much faster."

"He's just...I don't really like it when he transforms," the kunoichi admitted, a little lamely, but with a small nod of agreement from Sasuke. The blond could feel the fear again from the memories being brought up, and he again wanted to punch himself in the face.

"He's not so bad, usually," Kakashi said. "You just caught him at a bad time. Hey, Tenzo, support me here!" He motioned to the ANBU. "You're with him all the time, right? Normally, when he's transformed, he's just like a big stuffed animal."

The ANBU seemed to visibly falter at that. "Err. Yes, normally Naruto is a model shinobi and jinchuriki." The blond could've sworn he heard him disbelievingly muttering "Stuffed animal?" under his breath. "Despite that, though, there's still the issue of making a scene."

Kakashi-sensei had a solution to that, too, though. "We'll hide him in the ocean." For some definition of "solution". "No, hear me out," he began again, sensing that his team may not be immediately on board with the idea. "He transforms in deep enough water, tails down, to hide himself. He can sense as far out as he can, and then point us to them."

"I cannot revert his transformation in the water. We'd have to go out on land, and it'd be hard to stay fully hidden for the entire process," objected Tenzo.

"Then leave him transformed until we've picked up the hostages and saved the day," Kakashi responded, as if that was a simple solution.

The blond wasn't fully happy with it, but he didn't have any better plan. "Okay," he said, somewhat to the surprise of the ANBU, he suspected.

[Wave Coast]

The jinchuriki swam out a ways through the fog of the next morning, trying to stay on top of the waves. Thank goodness for swimming as a practical shinobi class. When he was what he judged to be far enough out, he began to release the fox's chakra from the seal, consciously bypassing the delay. In a moment, a somewhat larger wave struck the beach, displaced by the now fully-formed and mostly-submerged demonic fox.

"And 'Operation: Fuzzy Whale Sonar' is a go," he heard Kakashi remark. The blond had clearly not objected strongly enough to that name.

For a moment, he reflected on the smells, keeping his nose just above the water. Salt water, definitely still there. Fish, also still very present. But finally besides that, the smell of Team 7, the somewhat wooden scent of his cat-masked sensei, and, distinctly, the somewhat more wooden scent of...well, the woods. But, enough of that.

Pushing out his senses, he tried to scan for negative emotion as far out as he could. What he felt was...not the same as Konoha, but not that far off. He normally could feel fear, primal fear of being eaten or crushed, by himself, as the most frequent negative emotion. Disconcerting, certainly. Here? Hunger, primal fear of danger, but slightly different, fear of losing loved ones, guilt...but not the very sharp fear he was thinking of.

He stretched his senses further. More of the same, plus the daimyo's own massive fear for his family, but not the sharp fear of imminent danger. Further out, really concentrating, and...behind him, somewhere. Behind, out at sea. There it was, three sharp fears, one less developed, probably the daughter. No wonder they couldn't find them on Wave...

"**Irn thr wrblrlrgle,**" he gurgled uselessly. Right. Ocean, water, lack of air. Being in the form of molded demonic chakra that didn't actually need to breath made him forget that his mouth wasn't actually in the air any more. Slightly raising his mouth, he could speak more effectively. "**In the water.**"

"Oh? Heh. Clever," remarked the cycloptic jounin. "They must've been doing the hostage checks and Gato counter-checks on their normal patrols. Tenzo, I think we're going for another voyage now."

Soon, the remainder of Team 7 plus a clone that looked like his own human self was on Tenzo's boat again, following a vague shape just beneath the waves and couple ear tips just peeking above the water level.

[Ocean]

Smelling salt water everywhere was one thing. Being submerged in it to the very tips of the fox's ears for an extended duration was something else. Ugh. And it was cold, too. At least he wasn't going to drown, though the few times he had opened the fox's eyes, he'd felt the sting of salt water in them and quickly closed them. Sensing all the way, then. Still, he would be happy when he could get out of the ocean and get Tenzo-sensei to dispel this wet fur.

They had been travelling awhile, somewhere east of Wave. Gato hadn't just put the hostages between Fire and Wave, but at least he hadn't put them further out into the sea. Now, though, it was getting close.

He felt something poke his back, the signal to stop. He moved one ear, his right ear, back and forth a moment, so they'd see his acknowledgement, then slapped the water with the tip lightly 3 times, for 3 hostages. Two showed a great amount of fear, the third showed somewhat less. He then submerged that ear and slapped the water once with his other ear, for one other person, probably hostile, feeling a vague discontent and, he suspected, extreme boredom. Finally, right ear again, 12 light slaps for about 12 minutes before the next patrol boat, which he could faintly sense due to someone on it suffering from depression of some form. Well, he'd lead them here and given them the information he had. Now it was time to wait see if they needed any help...


	12. A Big Scare

A Big Scare

[Ship]

One Sasuke Uchiha quietly swam through the fog in the direction indicated by their giant fox teammate, accompanied by four others, one of which was a clone disguised as their otherwise-conspicuously-absent blond, just in case. _Take them by surprise; don't let them touch the hostages,_ he remembered his sensei saying. He was going to go in first and silently check that the hostages were indeed the ones they were looking for. If not, then abandon them for now. If they couldn't save the daimyo's family, then they didn't have the permission needed to start their actions on Wave, and Gato would hear about this and know they were still active.

He quietly crept up the side of the ship that should contain hostages. He crept up to the side of the cabin, the sound of the sea helping mask his quiet footsteps. He looked into a window. He saw a man with a sword and a dark-colored beanie, vaguely reminding him of of Mizuki and his bandanna-like forehead protector, aside from the vertical lines tattooed below his eyes, as well as the much narrower pupils. It matched a description Kakashi had given of one of Gato's most trusted guards, and one with a little bit of ninja training, at that. So, the man might not be entirely trivial to take down, but he probably would be.

Alongside the man, three hostages were sitting around, the daimyo's wife looking scared, the daughter looking sad, and the mother looking disappointed and irate. The inside of the cabin looked to be covered in the white wallpaper from the proof-of-life photos. He gave the subtle signal to the rest of the team that they were indeed all three of the hostages they were looking for.

Just the one enemy, though. He could take him down, and would. He crept carefully, aware of his teammates' arrival, as well. Get just up to the open door closest to the man and...

Creak.

A sound, from somewhere behind him. Zori looked up for a moment and he was seen. Dammit! Could anything ever go _right_ on this mission!? He rushed in with a kunai ready and a shuriken flying. The enemy pushed himself him with an arm against the wall, the shuriken grazing his nose, and ran for the opposite door of the cabin, clearly uninterested in a fight.

Fortunately, Sasuke had backup. Kakashi was at the other door, along with the disguised clone, the former grabbing the very nervous-looking man.

Relief. His own, that they'd succeeded. The hostages', who now looked quite happy as Sakura and the ANBU were untying their bonds. Certainly not Zori's, though. The man was pleading for his life, to be let go. He was looking around, especially at the walls.

Sasuke noted the walls, or more specifically, their wallpaper. It was new wallpaper; he could recognize that. He had seen new wallpaper before, soon after...his family died. It was there, in his home, to replace the old, bloodstained walls, to hide the blood, to hide the massacre.

Zori's nervous pleading was now a panic. "PLEASE-let-me-go-I-don't-wanna-die-_Idon'twannadie!_" he repeated as he looked again and again at the walls. At the wallpaper. And what it hid.

_Shit._

"Explosives!" Sasuke yelled suddenly. "Run, get off the boat before-!"

[Ocean]

The transformed jinchuriki _felt_ something, and not in the style of negative feelings, though he certainly felt feel a lot of fear. The water he had been in had just been disturbed in a big way, and he _heard_ quite a racket from below the waves. Not even waiting for a signal from Kakashi, he kicked the fox's limbs to surface. The ship was...gone. Nothing left. Billowing smoke around where it had once been. Did they die? _Did his team just-_

No, he felt something in there. A fear, a panicking fear of death, all in one small area, too narrow for him to distinguish different people. He swam in close, hoping to see something through smoke and burning wreckage. He could faintly see something fairly large and still intact. A sphere of wood! Good ol' Tenzo-sensei had pulled through!

The heat was probably harsh in there. He used the fox's arms to pull down some of the hotter pieces, extinguishing them fully in the sea. After enough was clear, he saw the sphere starting to open up, and heard gasps of air from inside. It slowly folded out into the approximate shape of a boat. Everyone inside was essentially unharmed, though they certainly looked like they had _expected_ a fair amount of harm, except for Tenzo, hidden behind a mask. He could feel the fear slowly disappearing from him, too, though.

And the fear rising from the passengers.

"S-s-sea monster!" yelled a little girl. The daimyo's daughter Kimiko, he supposed, or was the daughter Keiko? He couldn't immediately remember who was who. Either way, she was pointing directly at him. Ugh, he'd forgotten, too caught up in the sudden explosion. To be fair, it was a rather jarring event.

"Actually, he's usually on land, though he's pretty good in the sea, too," Kakashi began to remark nonchalantly. "I guess he's more of an amphibious monster."

"Sea monster!" the girl yelled again, her fear not very abated.

"Don't worry, he's a friendly monster," Kakashi continued. Calming them down, the blond realized. He could already feel the sudden spike of fear fading as the jounin failed to react to the gigantic, drenched fox demon. "Kyu-Kyu-kun won't hurt you; he's well trained."

What the hell did Kakashi just call him?

"He's...not so bad, when you get to know him," continued Sakura.

No, really, what had Kakashi called him?

"D-don't worry, the nice ninjas and their friend have saved us," said Keiko, or possibly Kimiko, but the older of the two, regardless. He'd have to ask discretely which name went with which person at some point, before he embarrassed himself.

He suddenly realized something. The other thing he could feel off in the distance before, the patrol boat. They must've heard that explosion, and were probably heading here to pick up their colleague. "**The next boat's still coming,**" he said simply.

"He can talk!?" remarked the now excited little girl, as Tenzo started forming another small boat, with a shadow clone therein disguised as Zori, courtesy of the silver-haired jounin sensei. The real Zori remained tied up and gagged; somewhat redundant as the man was also unconscious for the foreseeable future.

"He can do tricks, too! Be sure to ask him later," continued Kakashi, to the consternation of the jinchuriki. He wasn't a pet, dammit. Their swiftly-grown boat moved behind the wreckage, away from the incoming patrol ship, leaving fake samurai's boat alone and clearly visible. The oldest of the three they had rescued, Haru, whose name was fortunately somewhat more distinguishable, shushed the youngest as they waited for the patrol to arrive. The jinchuriki himself stayed mostly submerged behind the wreckage, just keeping an ear out to hear what was going on.

"Oi, Zori!" called a voice from the other boat.

"Hey, I'm over here!" called the disguised clone.

After a bit of time, and what the jinchuriki heard as picking up the stranded clone, he heard more. "So, was it ninja? Or that mythical demon we keep hearing about?"

"Ninja, four of 'em. Smoked up good," responded the clone.

"Good to hear. Don't like the idea of demons in the country."

_You care about the country?_ thought the transformed blond. _Then why are you working for the asshole that took it over and tried to have the family of its daimyo blown up?_

"Anywho, I already radio'd the boss," said the unseen goon, eliciting an underwater frown from the jinchuriki. Gato already knew. "I think he's paranoid, though. Thinks there's probably still someone skulking around, so he's picking up a little more 'insurance' until we're all clear, while he makes his big return." _More_ bad news. Of _course_ this wasn't the end, not after their brilliant rescue. More damn hostages. _And_ the daimyo thought they had failed and his family had died, and was probably sulking in depression.

It went on for a bit, but eventually, they shoved off back toward land. The jinchuriki rose from the water again for the inevitable plan.

"**So, now what?**"

Now that he looked, his silver-haired sensei didn't seem as downtrodden about this as he expected. "We still have some advantages," he began. "One: We have the daimyo's family, alive and well. Two: That clone will last awhile, so they won't discover we're alive for quite some time. Three: Gato still doesn't know the true nature of his _biggest_ problem."

His _biggest_ problem? What was...

...oh. Again.

[Land of Waves]

Dead. All dead. Keiko, Kimiko, Mom, all dead. The ninja that could've helped him, all dead. Why did this have to happen? Why did Konoha have to fail him _now_? _Why did Gato have to take his country!? His family!?_ Even now, he was taking more people. More hostages. More sacrifices. More deaths. Tazuna's bridge didn't even matter; it wouldn't bring back the dead, nor prevent them from being killed. Daimyo Onami of the Land of Waves had given up.

Tick. He heard a sound outside his window, but couldn't move himself to take his face off of his desk. Tick. Tick. Again. It wasn't going away. He get up, moved over to the window, started to look around, and saw...the ninja. That damn, useless ninja that had gotten his family killed. He wanted to yell, scream, sic his few loyal guards on that useless failure, but... Why? Why was he back?

The ninja pointed back at him. No, at the window. No, at the _side_ of the window. The ticking, it was needles puncturing the window frame, probably too quiet for his guards to hear them. Attached to one of them, a piece of paper with very recognizable handwriting:

_Juyomaru-kun,_

_We're all safe. The ninja all picked us up and protected us when the ship exploded, but Gato probably doesn't know. Just play along with him for now. We'll be coming back soon._

_Love you always,_

_Keiko Onami_

A little lower on the page, with different handwriting:

_PS Kyukyu-kun is a real big sea_ ("sea" was scratched out) _amfeebis monster, but he's nice and he won't hurt you._

_Kimiko_

[Land of Waves]

Gato was on cautiously optimistic. The daimyo's family was gone, but he'd picked up some spare hostages in case the fool grew a little spine, and the fool seemed pretty broken anyway.

Still, he wasn't going to underestimate ninja. They had _somehow_ found the hostages, and he wouldn't put it past them to have backup somewhere. But for now, he was ready. Time to put on a big show, and not some execution this time. He was back, in full force, and he was taking over Wave, lock, stock and barrel, with the daimyo in attendance.

Just as his grand show was going to get under way, though, he got a report. Some of his men saw a surviving ninja coming; some grey-haired punk in a mask. He called together his insurance; he'd be sure to run off this idiot and give his village plenty of financial hardship.

"So, you're the backup, eh?" he questioned the ninja.

"M-mission's not done, not 'til you're gone," the man said nervously. Gato had to admit, the stones on this guy were something else, venturing alone into this territory, surrounded by his mercenaries.

"Well, I'm certain the Land of Fire will have a few _choice words_ with your Leaf village after this is all said and done," he began speaking again. He motioned the hostage-keepers forward. "Unless you'd like to add more deaths to this whole fiasco, I suggest you _leave. Now._"

The ninja seemed to back off a bit, blanching at the addition of _more_ hostages. "I-I..." the overpaid mercenary tried to say, but he couldn't seem to find any more words.

Thump.

What was that sound?

Thump.

What was that _feeling_? He could feel the ground itself shake, and Gato began to look around. He saw confusion or distress everywhere.

Thump.

Everywhere except on that ninja's face.

Thump.

Where he saw _**absolute terror**_ in the lone visible eye.

"Oh no," the masked man began, breathing heavily. "No, no-nononoNO..." He heard shouting, screaming. Out from the coast, he saw something rising up from the shore.

Thump. He could see the source of the sound now; a gigantic paw had crashed down onto the beach.

It was...a monster. A gigantic, looming monster, with glowing red eyes, horrible sharp teeth, and gigantic, clawed limbs, and nine massive tails. The legendary demon of hatred and destruction. "C-call it off! Y-y-you're supposed to control it, aren't you!?" Gato pleaded frantically. He was vaguely aware that many people had started fleeing, including a couple of his hostage-keepers, having released their hostages.

Thump. Another paw moved forward, planting deeply into the land, as the _thing_ moved forward with unknowable purpose.

"Edo controlled it; I can't! H-he died when that ship blew up!" the ninja said in a panic. He...he was doomed. They were all doomed. Gato legs were barely holding him up.

Suddenly, it's terrible head, still dripping with seawater, tilted upward, and it let out a massive roar, knocking the man off his shaking feet, along with several others. His last hostage was released when his most trustworthy mercenary, Waraji, bolted, fleeing the terrible sound and leaving the former hostage lying on the ground in horror. When the deafening noise subsided, it looked back down, and Gato could've sworn it looked straight at _him_.

Move. Move move-move-_movemove__**move**_. He jumped to his feet, and _ran,_ guided by nothing but the basic instinct of his brain. He was prey trying to escape a predator, not thinking, just _running._ Aware as he ran that the sound was getting louder. _Closer._ Crashing footsteps of the demonic fox that was striding, leaping over buildings toward him, _hunting him down._ He was beyond the edge of town, but he could still hear it, feel the ground shaking, see the shadow looming over him, and then...

[Land of Waves]

Beneath the fox's paw, a short man in sunglasses cowered uselessly, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to do anything but tremble in place, slowly soaking in the salt water still dripping from the fox's fur. He could still feel the man's existential fear, along with the fear of the town he had run through.

That man, Gato. He had plundered this land for its resources, killed some of its citizens, made others to live in fear for their very lives, starved them, used them as hostages, tried to _blow up his team and several civilians, including a little girl, with explosives_, and...

...he couldn't kill him. The transformed jinchuriki just stood there, staring down at his captured, quivering, pathetic quarry. He had killed before, killed people that tried to kill him and his teammates and his sensei, and now, with perfect opportunity, he couldn't do it. Why not?

He knew why. It wasn't even because of the mission; he knew why Gato deserved to die, had to die, and agreed with it. He was just scared. Terrified, even. He had killed before in a rage, in hot blood. To kill this man now was preplanned, intentional. If he killed now, he was worried, how would it affect him?

No, how _wouldn't_ it affect him? Would it not matter to him? Would he find he was that far gone, that much like the Nine-Tails already?

And so, he just stood there, pressing down, not forcefully, but firmly on the corrupt shipping magnate. Waiting. For what, he didn't know.

He didn't really like this whole thing, this charade, trying to intentionally terrify a populace, but he had to admit, he didn't have anything better. He'd get over it, in time, as would Wave's citizens. Hopefully.

Then, what he awaited was there. The daimyo, in full regalia and bearing an unsheathed sword, walked up to the trapped man.

When he spoke, he reminded the jinchuriki of the old man Hokage. "As the Daimyo of the Land of Waves, I, Juyomaru Onami, order your execution for crimes against our country and its people." The man walked up to the jinchuriki's paw. The transformed ninja could _feel_ the man's presence. This was a nobleman, not a ninja, not even a samurai, and he could still put out an aura like _that._

Somewhere during this, Gato found his voice again. "N-no, please! I'll do anything! Give you anything!" The daimyo turned toward the man. "I-I have lots of money, more than your c-country's ever seen! W-Wave could be a nation to rival the Land of Fire!" His sword was raised above his head. "I'll give it all to you! Free! You can have anything! Everything! Just please don't-" Gato spoke no more, his shoulders no longer bearing the weight of his head.

[Land of Waves, some time later]

It had been...strange. Tazuna, the super bridge builder, had been there to see Gato attempting to formally take control of the country, ending any hope for their freedom. Then, all hell had broken loose, in a way that Tazuna thought bordered on literal, with the gigantic demon on the loose.

But then, Daimyo Onami returned, having followed the demon on its chase, holding the head of their oppressor. The demon itself was never seen again, but the respect their daimyo had gained from the incident had made him a much more powerful force politically on the island nation. It had been about a day before all of Gato's mercenaries had been apprehended, with help from the ninja he had originally hired. It had been two before all the populace had been calmed down about the sudden appearance of the gigantic monster from the sea.

Since then, the suddenly-very-popular daimyo had brought out a formal contract for the Land of Waves to become a protectorate of Konoha and a trading partner of the Land of Fire. The country as a whole had taken some time to vote on it, but it passed by an overwhelming majority.

The people of Wave had come to realize they owed a lot to those ninja, who were well within their rights to just abandon him after they were attacked. He never recalled what happened in that attack, but he certainly recalled the grilling he got afterwards...

Now it seemed like he, along with the rest of the Land of Waves, was fine and dandy again. Ships were bringing food in and out, fish were available on the market, the mood was good, and the citizens were back to work on his super bridge. It would make shipping easier, and the money was already spent anyway, so they may as well, even with Gato dead and buried.

Now, if only he knew what to call it, since his workers had rejected his choice of name...


	13. A Small Breakdown

A Small Breakdown

[Konoha]

After the missions and reports finally finished, Sakura Haruno arrived at home, greeted by her mother and father, Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno. She politely greeted them, and she was genuinely happy to be home and see them again, but she waved off their questions for the moment. "I'm tired, and I'd like to go to my room." She proceeded to her room, flopped on her bed and buried her face in her pillow.

Then, she just _screamed_.

She had left a few days ago to escort a bridge builder, defending him from standard road threats. She was _supposed_ to maybe fight bandits and highwaymen, if they weren't scared off by the presence of ninjas. Instead, over the last few days, she had infiltrated a group of mercenaries that meant her harm, been surprise attacked by missing ninjas, been subjected to the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's killing intent at practically point-blank range to the point that she went catatonic, and, to top it all off, been damn near _blown up_ along with most of her team and multiple civilians.

While she was teamed with the love of her life, her sensei had a hands-off approach to the point he may as well be an amputee, and her other teammate was literally a demon. Okay, so the last one wasn't fair; he was a jinchuriki, much maligned over things he had little control over. And she supposed that her sensei's approach wasn't exactly a failure; she felt she _had_ grown since her genin career began, putting her knowledge to good use.

Despite all that, she was certain she deserved a goddamn break; a chance to think things through on her own for a time, and get back to her senses for the long term.

"S-Sakura-chan!" yelled her mother. And she wasn't getting that right now, it seemed. It turned out that, if she screamed loud enough, then even if she muffled it with her pillow, people could hear it. "Sakura-chan, are you okay!?" asked the dark blonde, having just opened the door of her room and walked up to her.

"Sakura-chan!" yelled her father as well, still at the doorway.

"I'm...I'm fine," she responded sheepishly. Really, she didn't want to deal with this right now...

"Please, Sakura, a kunoichi doesn't scream like that when she's 'fine'," her mother chastised her, before changing to a more calm and caring tone. "Please tell us, what's wrong?"

"Now, I guess, nothing, really," she replied. "Just...trying to get over the last mission. Missions, really."

"C-rank, right? What went wrong? Also, how'd you end up on more than one? Two-for-one deal at the mission office?" asked her father jovially.

"You know full well that she isn't allowed to give the full details of the missions out," her mother chastised her father this time, pointing her finger at his face.

"I wasn't asking for _everything_," the grey-pink haired man replied, raising a hand in front of his face in defense.

"Just enough to compromise secrecy. No wonder you never made it past genin," her mother finished. Before he could reply, she turned back to Sakura. "Do tell us, but avoid classified information. For starters, what's the main problem? Mission obstacles, love, friends, enemies, teammates?"

Sakura thought a moment. "...I guess, mission obstacles and teammates," she began. "I've got to keep it quiet, but I can at least say, I did my first C-rank but..." She stalled a bit.

"...First kill?" asked her mother.

"N-no, not that." She considered what she could say, but figured out what she could say. "I did three missions while I was gone," she decided she could say. "One C-rank, one B-rank, and one A-rank."

_That_ seemed to bring some understanding to the blonde former kunoichi. "A-rank! I only did one in my ninja career, and I was a chunin!"

"I never even did a real B-rank," admitted her former shinobi father sheepishly.

Her mother calmed down a bit, before continuing. "Mission complications happen; never really can avoid them entirely," she began. "The A-rank I did was because of one. Bad intel; one teammate came back without a left hand." She looked her over a moment. "You're intact, though, right?"

"Yeah, didn't really take a hit during it. Unless getting splashed with salt water counts," she explained, thinking back to her transformed teammate's attempts to dry himself after Gato was executed. She had just managed to dry out from her swimming trip in the middle of the ocean by then, too...

"Well, even the close calls stick with you, though others can't see them so well," remarked her father. "That's not all, I guess, though. You said teammates, too, right? You said before you had 'Sasuke-kun' with you. Did he reject you?"

"N-no, err, sort of," she admitted, thinking back to her raven-haired future boyfriend's stoic lack of response to her. Now that she thought of it, he had been opening up a bit on that mission. "But, that's not what the problem was."

"Did he turn out to be gay? I always won-"

"Let our daughter speak; we don't need your speculation," her mother interrupted the man. "Besides, she said 'teammates', not 'love'. Continue, dear."

"It's...my other teammate. His name's Naruto Uzumaki."

For about half a minute, it was dead silent.

Her mother finally broke the silence. "He...he had to use 'it', during the mission," she said. It was a statement of fact, not a question. Sakura just nodded, not trusting her own voice as she remembered the attack by the missing nins, and how it ended.

"I never felt that comfortable, you know, about those," her mother continued. "Important, sure, but...why put one with us? With you?"

"When it happened, I just broke down. I couldn't even do anything. It was worse than that night before..." Sakura finally said.

"You could transfer," her father spoke up. "It happens all the time; sometimes a team just doesn't fit you well. I did it a few times."

Her mother looked like she was about to comment again about how he had never made it past genin, but she must've thought better of it. "Did...did he try to attack you?" asked her mother tentatively.

"No!" answered Sakura quickly. "No, he never did anything like that. He got angry, but not at me or the team, it was-" She stopped herself. "Mission secrets, but no. He's safe to be around, usually." She wouldn't compare him to a stuffed animal like her sensei. She might call him "Kyu-Kyu-kun" if he deserved it, though. Thinking back, Kakashi-sensei seemed incredibly dismissive of the whole Nine-Tailed Demon Fox thing, compared to most people.

"So...are you transferring?" asked her mother.

"...No," she decided finally. She could accept her team, despite the fear. The decision lifted a weight off her shoulders she didn't realize she was carrying, and brought her overall mood up.

Her mother was quiet for a time, but then a smile crept onto her face. "You're a braver kunoichi than I, that's for sure," she answered. "I'm not sure how I feel about it, but if you're okay with it and the Hokage's okay with it, I'm not one to complain." That brought Sakura's mood up a bit further.

"So..." her father began tentatively. "Major complications and classified details aside, how did your missions go, anyway?"

Sakura brightened, thinking back to when they reported the success. "Great! I got special mention on one, actually, and I'm getting a nice bonus for it!"

They talked awhile longer, saying what she was permitted, occasionally stopped when her mother wasn't sure if they were on the boundaries. The discussion with her parents helped much more than the screaming into a pillow, she decided, and now she felt ready to go back to work tomorrow.

Inwardly, she felt something a little stronger. _**Cha! No short assholes or demon foxes will keep **_**me**_** down! I'm Sakura **_**fucking**_** Haruno, and I'm back in business!**_


	14. A Big Breather

A Big Breather

[Konoha]

After delivering the report for the Wave mission, a silver-haired jounin was escorting the village's rather quiet jinchuriki to a certain place. Kakashi Hatake was a man that liked to emphasize teamwork above all else, but the circumstances of this most recent team meant he wasn't able to get them to work together nearly as often as he'd like. He honestly wondered if they'd been thrown into a C-rank too early, but if the Hokage was suspicious about it, he had to admit that they certainly were the genin team least likely to be in much personal danger.

Besides, the proof was in the pudding, as it were. His team had performed exemplary in stressful circumstances, and shown far more impressive teamwork than he'd expected, considering they had only met for a single D-rank a few days prior.

His current expedition, though, was to try and help make an impression on his newest blond student. He had taken the other two students on the same short trip before, after the bell test, and he thought it would be worth repeating.

"And here we are," the jounin stated, as the two came upon a tall, kunai-shaped stone.

"It's...a rock?" asked the boy.

"Yep," replied the man, "but look closer." In the lighting as it was, it wasn't easy to see the important details. When they were close enough, though, the names visible on the memorial stone. "These are the names of all those who have died in service to Konoha," he explained.

"Oh, I remember now," the boy suddenly said, looking a little sheepish. "Tenzo-sensei showed me, sort of. I kinda...crushed it."

Kakashi looked at the boy, then at the obviously intact stone, and then finally back at the boy. "Umm..."

"I mean, a fake one," the boy explained awkwardly. "Sometimes, Tenzo-sensei would make trees into parts of Konoha, and have me try and run through them while transformed. It...well, it was good practice, anyway. Once, I stepped in the clearing around here and lost my balance. In the model, I mean."

Kakashi shrugged and continued his explanation. "As I was saying, it's a monument to those who died serving Konoha. These," he said, indicating a large section, "are those that died fighting the Nine-Tails twelve years ago." The boy looked a bit depressed at that. "Do not feel guilty about their deaths. Your presence, as you are now, is part of what they fought for. Now, because of the Fourth, you can, personally, keep the Demon Fox in check."

"The Hokage said," the boy began slowly, "he said that their blood isn't on my hands, but...it's hard, sometimes, to say that and feel like I mean it." He stopped and looked questioningly at the man. "Do you know what I mean?"

Kakashi hesitated, considering what he should say, but he knew the boy recognized lies. "I do," he admitted. "My teammates... They're all on this stone. And I sometimes" _always_ "feel like they're here because of me, and that I'm only here because of them." He paused, thinking back on Obito and Rin. "But, then I think they might appreciate what I've tried to do, to honor them. And that makes it feel a little better."

In time, they moved away from the stone, and the boy seemed sombre, but no longer quite so depressed. Kakashi was happy to finally show his old teammates his final student, and to show his final student a bit about teamwork.

He was also happy that he hadn't had to explain the fate of the most recent addition to the stone, Yugao Uzuki.

[Team 7's Training Ground]

Sakura was happy to be the best at something in the team, even if Sasuke-kun looked a little distraught for it. On her first try, she had ascended straight up the side of the tree, using chakra on her feet alone. Sasuke-kun had gotten a fair portion up the tree before the bark had cracked and he'd been forced to jump off. The less said about her other teammate's attempts, the better. Kakashi-sensei had quickly decided not to sacrifice any more poor trees to that fate.

"Oh, while you're still here for our designated training time, why don't you just go up and down for awhile?" requested her cycloptic sensei. Well, so much for her moment of relaxing pride.

_**Cha! I'm rewarded for my skill with **_**more work!?**

Training had been fairly frequent since they returned from that set of missions, ultimately counted as three including Tazuna's escort as B-rank, rescuing the Daimyo's family and apprehending Gato as A-rank, and helping clean up Gato's lackeys as C-rank. (Huff...) So, by the time of her return from her scheduled C-rank mission, she had, in fact, completed one C-rank mission, despite the rest of the confusion involved.

Her idea of the contract and her help later in putting it together, while ultimately not the solution to Gato, would pay significant dividends to Konoha over the long term while offering protection for Wave long past their departure, and had earned her a special mention from the Hokage. Despite that, knowing that she had at least some physical skill over her two teammates was a boost to her confidence. (Huff...)

Now that she had a specific talent that was more combat relevant, she wondered what her best use of it would be. Two main specializations used especially high chakra control: genjutsu and medical ninjutsu. (Huff...) She figured that one (or even both!) of these would be worth looking into, to leverage what she could do. She understood the theory behind genjutsu, but lacked any actual jutsu she could personally use. _Wait, didn't sensei use one on me during that bell test, making me think Sasuke-kun was dying? I should ask him about that one,_ she thought after a moment. (Huff...)

Medical ninjutsu, though, she wasn't sure where to start on. (Huff...) She supposed sensei might know a little about that, but he hadn't had any opportunity to demonstrate it. At the very least, he could probably point her in the right direction. (Huff...) Of course, knowing sensei, the right direction would be something obvious, like the library. In which case she may as well just check it out herself. (Huff...)

_**Also, regular ninjutsu! Nothing wrong with just being efficient in blowing stuff up!**_ (Huff...) And yeah, regular ninjutsu. (Huff...)

Though if she wanted to use (Huff...) regular ninjutsu, that was also (Huff...) a matter for sensei. If she had (Huff...) the chakra reserves for (Huff...) it, anyway, but she (Huff...) was sure that (Huff...) she (Huff...) was sure she (Huff...) she was (Huff...huff...) sure...

Then the kunoichi collapsed off of the tree, fortunately while already near the ground, and landed on her side, breathing heavily. She considered that mayhaps chakra reserves _were_ something she needed to work on, and that mayhaps Kakashi-sensei had been attempting to make a point with this most recent bit of exercise.

[Outside Konoha]

A blond jinchuriki fresh from training, originally training on tree walking, but then just practice with throwing weaponry, arrived at his home, such as it was. Fully wooden, with few belongings, mostly a few things that had been retrieved for him from his old apartment, such as tableware and his bed. Also installed, some fairly cheap heating and fans. Water he had to retrieve manually. He brought with him a supper, real food, or however close to real food ramen from Ramen Ichiraku counted as.

While not the healthiest, nor really necessarily his preference, ramen had certainly been very much available to him in the past, so it was familiar. He felt he needed a lot of familiar things lately; it helped deal with the unfamiliarity of everyday life. He sat down and began to eat.

The seal was essentially stable, now, or at least as stable as it was likely to get in its current form. Combat stability was still sadly missing, so he was ostensibly a hazard if he was suddenly attacked, though he couldn't imagine who in Konoha would do so, or why. As such, he was still stuck outside of town. An outsider to his own home, really. Kakashi-sensei could lecture on the virtues of teamwork and willingness to give his own life to Konoha all he wanted, but it was up against a hard reality. But, some day, he was certain he'd be able to go home for real, to his old apartment, or even just some home in the city, with a bit of distance from neighbors just for safety. Konoha had space for him somewhere, he was certain. He'd just have to keep proving he was safe.

Hadn't he done so, though? He'd shown that he could take the fox's chakra back down if attacked, at least if attacked once. He'd shown that he could wander through a foreign country undetected. He'd shown he could, while transformed, quickly move through a town without causing any collateral damage. So, what was up?

He knew, of course. Fear. Still. He could feel it, still, even in his human form, as he wandered through town after returning from the mission. He could feel that he still had escorts keeping paths clear, so that nobody would _accidentally_ get near him, and he wouldn't _accidentally_ get near anyone.

The bowl in front of him had finally been relieved of meat, noodles and vegetables, and only the salty broth remained, which he began to drink down. It wasn't that the fear was unfounded. He thought back to the last mission. He could kill a person in an instant, essentially. He had slaughtered one chunin-rank enemy in a single attack and permanently paralyzed another with an attack that technically missed. Well, the fox was dangerous, anyway.

As a human, he had taijutsu, pretty decent taijutsu by academy standards, and with his strength amplified as it seemed to be since that disastrous attempt to self-revert, he suspected he might've been able to fight off those chunin without transforming, in retrospect. Still, plenty of ninja could say the same, and the blond didn't detect much fear of Kakashi. Maybe he should adopt bizarre mannerisms, a horrible attendance record, and a dry sense of wit, too?

He was now just staring at the empty bowl. He supposed it must be fear of his _willingness_ to attack, rather than mere ability. Willingness he didn't really have, but most people didn't have a handy lie-detector built in, and those that had something analogous could still worry that the fox itself might use its own willingness.

So that just left trying to prove that he wasn't the fox. An uphill battle, considering he frequently looked very much like it. Hopefully, more missions would give proof enough, in time. Proof that he was human, a person like them. Proof that he could act like them, work with them, fight with them. Fight like them...

[Konoha]

_Never. Overlook. A detail._ After having narrowly saved the mission in Wave along with the lives of most of his team by noticing the _wallpaper_ of all things, Sasuke Uchiha had a new perspective on life, which he considered as he approached the Uchiha district.

He now noticed some other details, and started to make more connections.

Civilians knew him, and frequently looked upon him with pride. He'd noticed this before. Two, they discussed with each other when they saw him. He'd noticed this before, too. Those discussed with others, and words frequently spread, inflating rumors. He hadn't paid as much attention to this. Because of this, his minor victories became exaggerated, expanding the process. The adulation of the people was self-feeding. _This_ could be an issue. Could this be affecting him, and his self image? He wasn't sure...

More important than his self image, how might this new perspective be used against a certain S-ranked missing nin...? The man wasn't around now, so he couldn't exactly gather many details, aside from the listing in the bingo book which, by this point, he could recite from memory converted to iambic pentameter and following a jaunty tune. He could mostly remember that he was a skilled ninja, before...that night. But, his memories of the man before were faded and tainted with perspective. He couldn't just rely on them for fine details he didn't notice at...

"Sasuke-kun!" His exploration of his new outlook was interrupted by a irritating platinum blonde, who ran up to him, but who thankfully kept her hands to herself. "I was in the neighborhood..." The Uchiha district wasn't near anything anyone else would conceivably go to. It was on the southern edge of the village and very much isolated. "...and I just happened to see you here." She was the biggest gossip in their class. The way rumors spread, she'd know for a fact he was back from missions and training in town again. She'd probably be aware that this was the time of day that training tended to end; she was, in fact, probably only just out from her own training. Ino Yamanaka planned ahead, but her ruse was transparent.

Wait. Yamanaka. Mental ninjutsu, memory scanning. Maybe he _could_ take a closer look at his memories, of his brother, back when he was his brother. There had to be _something_ he might notice, something he could use, from before that night.

"...Sasuke-kun?"

...That night... Would..._could_ he... Dammit, _never_ overlook a detail. Even if it was painful to examine. The night Itachi killed his family, he _showed it to him_. He was forced to live through it, for _days_, days of watching him kill them, _fight_ them... _Days of watching Itachi __**in combat with Sharingan users**__._ He didn't want to relive it, he really didn't. But...it could be his best shot, his best weapon, his way inside the man's tactics, the way to determine his tells, to reveal his weaknesses, to even the odds.

He _would_ have to talk to the Yamanaka clan. At least...he would, in time. He wasn't sure he was ready to face those memories just yet.

"...He's so stoic and amazing..."


	15. A Big Delivery

A Big Delivery

[Konoha]

A certain silver-haired jounin was preparing his team for another C-rank mission. He really wished he could get his full team on more D-rank missions to build camaraderie and teamwork, but the Hokage wasn't having it.

He couldn't argue with the reasoning, he admitted. Sending S-rank power off on random local chores was fun, to be sure, but the village elders tended to get uppity about "atrocious misappropriation of village resources", both the jinchuriki and the ANBU forming a subtle blockade.

At least they weren't sending the boy off on long-range A- and S-rank missions to blow things up yet, so he could be thankful for that.

[On the Road]

They were escorting a middle-aged man by the name of Kenji with a shipment of medical supplies to a small town in the Land of Fire. At least they weren't going to have to worry about foreign affairs on this mission...

They went by foot, and then by boat for a time ("Careful not to fall into the river; there are poisonous fish this time of year."). So far, a banal escort mission, as Team 7 and their ANBU shadow had hoped their first would be.

When they were supposedly close to town, the jinchuriki was noticing something that the others weren't, though. "There's...something here, I think...?" He couldn't smell it, or hear it, but he felt a negative emotion, somewhere. But, it was...vague. He couldn't really describe it.

"Where?" asked his black-haired teammate seriously.

"I don't know." He felt kind of useless at the moment. It was almost...a haze. A haze of negative emotion, sort of moving. What was...

Wait. No, he felt again, that couldn't be right. "I can't...sense things right now. I can't feel it from you or Sakura." Or Kakashi, but that man had never had a fear of him to feel. "Or, I can, maybe, but it's...it's not where you are, not exactly, and it's kind of... I don't know how to describe it."

"So, something is blinding your sensing," said Sasuke.

"Yeah. Didn't know that was possible." In truth, if something could blind or dull his negative emotion sensing, he was all for it in the long run. But right now, it was a hindrance. He hadn't noticed how much he'd started to rely on that power of the fox's, as much as he disliked it.

Soon, they were upon some ruins. "These ruins are just outside of town. We're almost there," announced their client optimistically. The blond smelled something then, a person, he thought. In the trees, away from the ruins. He turned a moment, and Sasuke seemed to track onto his line of sight.

Then, from the trees came...a red-haired girl with a black bandana. "Hey, you've got the supplies now? I'm supposed to escort you back." She looked kind of like a boy, but the nose knows, or so they say. The blond wondered if there might be other times in which a person's gender might be determined more easily via scent than via sight, but supposed it probably wasn't a very important ability in the long run.

"Don't think I'll need it. I hired a little extra help," explained the client. "But, I don't mind some company. These ninja types are too serious." The normally kind of quirky Kakashi-sensei was much more subdued around clients, the jinchuriki noted.

But, that wasn't everything the boy smelled. "Hey, did you have anyone else with you?" he asked the newly-arrived girl.

"No, I came on my own," she responded. "Why?"

Sasuke had a kunai out first, and his eyes turned color and developed the single mark of his new Sharingan. The rest of the team followed suit, eyes aside.

It looked like his red-eyed teammate could see something he couldn't. He traced Sasuke's eyes, and could see a person. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the man in the bushes raised a hand up, and suddenly, bandits jumped out from various sides, some on the side of the ruins.

"Seven of them!" called out Sasuke, having quickly turned and seen the numbers.

This was it. Time to prove he could fight as a person, _without_ the fox's power. Well, mostly without; he couldn't exorcise it completely. Still, without becoming the fox.

The blond stood by his pink-haired teammate and they were quickly confronted by three of the bandits, one armed with a sword, one with two knives, and one with a club with nails in it, making up nearly half the total count. The plan was what they had worked out before, in so far as they could against three.

He rushed the one with the sword, dancing left of the inevitable forward attack in response to his charge. He brought his arm down on the bandit's before he could turn his sword back, knocking his grip loose, then burying that arm's fist in the bandit's gut, laying him out for the moment. "Kill!" yelled Sakura, of all people, but he ignored it.

Sakura had sent a kunai flying toward the knife user, who surprisingly deflected it, slightly. It still grazed an arm, though, eliciting a small cry from the bandit and disrupting his planned attack. She then quickly jumped back to avoid the attack of the club-weilding bandit.

After two quick hand signs, so fast Naruto might not have noticed them if he wasn't aware of them, she threw another, slightly slower kunai at the knife wielder. This one was deflected as well, but it made a slightly-off sound, more of a "tang" than a "ting".

He directed himself at the knife-using bandit, preparing for what would come next. The outlaw was preparing to strike, but clearly saw that it was two-on-two, having lost his blade-wielding ally. Then, both he and his colleague both flinched away from each other, looking at some momentary phantom from Sakura's genjutsu.

Perfect opportunity. The jinchuriki charged in and elbowed the knife-wielder in the kidney, causing him to drop his knives, which the jinchuriki quickly knocked away. He then gave him a good gut punch, too.

At the same time, the kunoichi used the opportunity to send multiple shuriken into the club-wielder's body, injuring his leg, left arm, and slicing across his cheek. She used the extension of the distraction to get behind him, jump slightly, and slit his throat.

These two seemed down.

Then, a sound of something moving fast in the wind. "_Behind!_" And of Sasuke's voice. The blond started to jump up and out of the way, but it was only mostly enough. A hastily thrown sword caught his leg, courtesy of the first of the three bandits in their fight.

It wasn't severed, but the cut went to the bone, and it hurt, a _lot_. He clutched his leg in pain, vaguely aware of Sakura approaching the offending bandit with a kunai raised. Then, he felt the chakra moving, and heard the hissing.

He held back down on it; he had to prove he was himself, that we could fight on his own, that he was safe, that he could go home. His leg pulsed, blood flowed rapidly from the wound, and the hissing wasn't stopping.

He moved out of the fight, jumping to the side, but Sakura seemed to be taking out the remaining bandits of their three, already nearly incapacitated with pain or loss of weapon, and Sasuke and Kakashi seemed done with theirs.

He forced the chakra back, he'd stop it, he wouldn't transform, not when the fight was done, not for no reason. The fox's chakra was leaking, nearing the end of the delaying seal, and he could hardly stop it now. It reached the end, and he pulled it back, _hard_.

There was a pulse of demonic chakra, and his hair stood on end for a moment, but he didn't transform. The wound on his leg was already closing; he could barely see it was there at all, aside from the cut through his grey pants and the blood staining the tattered edges.

He looked up and confirmed. Sakura had executed one more, the one that threw a sword. Kakashi had taken down the remaining one of their three, the former knife-wielder, nonlethally. Finally, Tenzo had arrived on the scene, though a little late to offer any actual assistance.

"That's all of them. Well done on your first real fight, everyone," Kakashi-sensei offered. He must've been able to detect them as well, if he could confidently say that they had gotten them all.

What just happened suddenly came back to the blond. They had just fought seven people out of nowhere, and at least two were dead. He looked over at the other four Sasuke and Kakashi had dealt with. Three were tied up. Another, which the boy recognized as the one that had signalled for the others, was dead as well, his mouth foaming. Poison? He didn't recall Sasuke using poison...

Speaking of poison, Sakura was looking rather unhealthy herself. "I...I have to go," the kunoichi said simply, before running off a short distance into the trees.

The blond's other genin teammate then began to report what he'd noticed. "This one, I think he was the leader. He was hanging back at first, but attacked after we noticed him. Specifically, he looked at my forehead protector before deciding to attack." He stopped to consider. "I think...they didn't want to attack ninja, but maybe they thought we'd attack them?"

"Konoha isn't so aggressive as that," Kakashi said.

"Then..." Sasuke thought. "A vendetta against Konoha. He had something against Konoha. Not sure what, though. How did your three seem, Naruto?"

"Hmm? Well, they seemed like bandits, but I guess better than average," the jinchuriki supposed. "One managed to block two kunai, though the second was expected. One of Sakura's for her genjutsu. Other than that, nothing special. That last attack was just unexpected, not well executed."

"Mine was good, I think chunin level," began the Uchiha. "That's more why I think he was the leader, at least of this band. We'll probably get more when some of these wake up," he said, indicating Kakashi's incapacitated bandits.

"Oh, Naruto, while Sasuke finishes his report on what just happened, consider a moment why you took that hit to the leg," instructed Kakashi.

The black-haired shinobi continued, while the jinchuriki thought. "The other bandits may have been better than average, but not by much."

The wound he received, it came from the first bandit. He'd assumed the man he had incapacitated when he'd suckerpunched him after ducking around the sword would stay down longer.

"They were probably trained, at least a little, either by this one or someone else."

Sakura was right. He should've just killed. He was strong enough and knew the human body well enough that he could've.

"But, since this man went through the trouble of killing himself with a poison pill, when these others were apprehended, they must not know anyone else, at least not of importance. We'll have to find out when we can interrogate them."

Kakashi-sensei and Tenzo-sensei were skilled enough to take prisoners, but he wasn't. He sometimes had to remind himself that he really was still just a genin.

"Now, what was their target?" asked Kakashi.

If that sword had been thrown at anyone else, they wouldn't have healed right up like he did. There would've been a long term injury, quite possibly crippling, maybe even lethal. Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, the client or that local girl, they wouldn't heal like him.

"Originally, I guess the client, but considering they didn't chase him when he ran, there may have been a change of plan to attack us," replied Sasuke.

Where were the client and that local girl, anyway?

"Another thing that's bugging me. We're right at the doorstep of a town. It doesn't seem like an ideal place for bandits to operate. I wonder if there's something we'll find out in town."

"Valid points. If you come up with anything else, I'm all ears," Kakashi said. "Now, Naruto, have you figured out your part?"

"Yes," the jinchuriki responded, depression evident in his voice.

"It's hard for you, I know," his sensei continued. "You've got too much second-hand guilt built up already, and too many other concerns. But still, you'll have to deal with it. It's something every ninja deals with, in time."

[Nearby]

A pink-haired kunoichi was in the brush nearby, losing her lunch.

In some ways, she was proud of what she'd accomplished in what was essentially her first actual combat. She didn't freeze up; she figured she got over that phase after that attack on the way to Wave. She was able to calmly put the theory of her new genjutsu into practice, and it worked perfectly. She then slew two enemies, enemies that deserved it, as far as she could tell.

_**Cha! I kicked ass!**_

In other ways, she had other thoughts. _I just killed two people!_ she thought. _Two living, breathing people! They had names! They had hopes, dreams! I get annoyed at Naruto for not killing, and once I do so myself, I puke my guts out..._ Theory was nice, but the actual practice was something else.

Her thoughts, positive and negative, were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. She quickly had another kunai out and pointed toward the source.

"Ah! W-wait, I'm not an enemy!" It was the red-haired local from before. What was his name? Or her name? Sakura was embarrassed to admit she couldn't tell off-hand.

"Sorry, you just startled me a bit there," Sakura said. "I'm just feeling" _totally screwed up_/_**totally badass**_ "a little overwhelmed at the moment."

"It's fine," he or she said reassuringly, holding up a hand. "You did just save me and Kenji from bandits, so I can cut you a lot of slack."

"Well, it's what we were hired for. We're ninjas."

"Yeah," the boy or girl said. Sakura hoped she wouldn't have to ask. "You know, I once thought about becoming a ninja."

"Oh? It's hard work."

"That's not the problem for me," he or she continued. "My sensei used to be one, but retired to become a medic. I used to ask him for training so I could become a kunoichi." Girl, then. "But, he convinced me to just become a medic like him." She looked off wistfully. "Now, I can't imagine myself being anything else. The violence...I don't know how I could stand it."

_Not so sure here, either, but I'll figure it out,_ Sakura thought wryly.

"Well, we should probably get back to the others, before my team sends out a search party," the kunoichi said.

"Okay," agreed the local girl. "By the way, if you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"

"I'm Sakura, and you?"

"I'm Amaru!"


	16. A Big Mistake

A Big Mistake

[Small Town]

They finally arrived in town through the front gate with their client, finally finishing the mission objective and dropping off Kenji with his supplies and the girl whose name turned out to be Amaru. Also in tow, several tied-up bandits to bring to local justice.

"Sensei's out of town for now; he was just leaving when he sent me out for Kenji. Otherwise, though, I'd be happy to introduce you to him," she said. "He may not be back for a few days; he usually takes awhile when going to an outpatient."

Well, they now arguably had an excuse to stay around a little while. Their raven-haired teammate had expressed some concern about a bandit attack right next to town, especially from a group that very much seemed to be operating under higher orders. It seemed worth investigating, at least for a moment.

Also, the blond jinchuriki was still unable to use his negative emotion sensing correctly, due to...something. They really hadn't the foggiest on this one. Was it localized? Was it something with the seal? Was he just sick? The blond in question somewhat doubted that last one, given his impeccable health in the past.

They investigated as well as they could, but there seemed to be no sign of anything amiss in the town. They had needed more medical supplies, and Kenji had been sent out to procure some. He had heard the rumors and horror stories about bandits, so he made a short detour and hired some help from Konoha before he headed back. At the very least, it seemed like the complication in _this_ mission wasn't known about ahead of time.

[Small Town]

There were too many details pointing to something wrong. Sasuke Uchiha wasn't happy to leave things alone as they now were, but there weren't pieces to put anything together, and they weren't coming up with more in town.

So far, they knew that either a ninja posing as a bandit or a bandit that was formerly a ninja. They also suspected he was working for someone else, but they couldn't be certain, as he'd killed himself. They had determined that he had trained the other bandits through their interrogation of the remainder, which they had then dropped off in town.

Whoever was pulling the strings, though. What was he or she looking for? The medical supplies? Possible. Easier to claim them on the road than once in town. That seemed to be all the client had, though, and they weren't so much expensive as they were bulky and locally unavailable.

So, what? Kenji didn't seem particularly wealthy for a citizen, so he didn't have particular favor with any local lords. Not ransom material.

And then, what did this mysterious ninja have against Konoha?

Lastly, what was up with his blond teammate's sensing? Could this be related to anything at all going on around here?

Too many details, but yet, too few. Nothing to tie them together. It was essentially a random attack for little to no gain, right next to a town where capture was much more likely.

Maybe...maybe he was reading too much into it. He dared to hope that maybe there wasn't anything so horribly wrong here.

[Small Town]

After a long discussion with her sensei to bring her back down after her first kills, a certain pink-haired kunoichi had spent much of the time in town talking with the redhead medic-in-training, Amaru. Maybe she would learn something about medical ninjutsu, or hear some detail Sasuke-kun could use. He had been so smart lately!

_**Cha! I picked a real winner!**_

But, the information she got didn't seem too useful. She heard local gossip (not as much local gossip as Ino-pig could come up with, to be sure), stories about the girl's sensei, and some ghost stories about the ruins. She returned with some stories of her own exploits, insofar as they weren't classified, which meant mostly stuff from before graduation. She also waxed lyrical about Sasuke-kun, if just for a bit.

Still, she was glad to have someone to talk to, and something to talk about besides the most recent events.

"What about you, Amaru? We've talked awhile now, and you haven't said that much about yourself."

The girl looked slightly sad at this. What Sakura discovered was that Amaru was kind of disconnected from the town as a whole, just hearing a lot of the information she got second hand, and never having much opportunity to talk with others. This may have been why she was so talkative with the kunoichi now. Her only real connection was to the local doctor that was teaching her.

Somewhere during the explanation, her blond teammate had joined in to listen, though he didn't seem to have anything to say. Sakura supposed he had gotten tired of Sasuke-kun's investigation.

Amaru had at some point in the past become horribly ill, and everyone had avoided her for safety. That doctor, however, had gone through considerable effort to save her himself. Since then, she'd sworn to dedicate her life to upholding that man's ideals of saving the lives of others.

Eventually, it was time to leave, essentially empty-handed aside from the completed mission. But, the kunoichi felt a bit better about what she'd done, having heard more about the young medic she'd saved.

[Outside]

In the late afternoon, they finally left, despite Amaru's hopes that they'd stay to meet her sensei when he returned. They figured they'd make camp up the road a bit outside. Even with their best efforts to uncover some information, nobody in the town seemed to know anything in particular about the local bandits, nor anything in particular about Kenji. It seemed they'd just have to leave this mystery alone as they headed back to Konoha. Nothing of real interest was here for them to worry about, right?

Wrong, of course.

An explosion, the shake of the earth, and a sudden spike of fear in the air, though the direction was unknowable. But, the jinchuriki had a guess. "The town!" The gathered team 7 looked back and saw smoke starting to come from the town. Though their mission was done, the four Konoha ninja headed back to the town as quickly as they could, hoping to do something about what had just happened.

When they arrived, they saw what appeared to be more bandits, but by the way they moved, they must've been ninja. Likely from the same group that had ambushed them on the way into town.

Kakashi moved to intercept some, but the ones he caught quickly died of the same poison that had gotten their previous ninja, and the remainder were all scattering, too fast to catch them all. A hit and run on this town, for some reason.

The smoke made it hard to see or smell, and the roar of the fire made it hard to hear, but the jinchuriki could feel there was terror around, somewhere. "There are survivors, somewhere in here!" he shouted to the rest of the team.

"Sasuke!" said Kakashi suddenly. "Activate your Sharingan a moment. Copy this jutsu and help me put out the fires. More working on controlling the fire means a better chance of survivors." Sasuke got up to do as instructed, as Kakashi flashed through hand signs to create a water style jutsu appropriate for extinguishing.

"Team 7, groups of at least two! Search for survivors, but there might be more mystery ninja around! Sasuke, drink lots of fluids!" yelled Kakashi. Sakura followed Kakashi, who continued to use the jutsu he'd just shown Sasuke to fight the fire. Tenzo went in another direction to find survivors and control the inferno, alone since he was not strictly being a member of Team 7. The remaining two genin headed off in another direction, also to find survivors and again, for Sasuke, to help fight the fire.

The smoke was getting overwhelming, but between the two, they found their way through town, Sasuke occasionally stopping to use the water jutsu and try and stifle a burning building. Then, something must've caught the Uchiha's eye. "Survivor!" yelled the raven-haired boy, pointing to one of the burning buildings. Indeed, the jinchuriki could see the silhouette of a man in the window.

The building looked terrible, a strong blaze having spread practically throughout, but the window was open, so there was some entrance.

A voice that sounded like an aging man replied at a shout, barely audible above the roaring fire. "N-no! Don't come in here! The fire's too-!" He was interrupted when part of the building around him collapsed, sealing the window as an entrance.

"Dammit!" yelled Sasuke. "That was the only way I saw in!" He started his extinguishing jutsu again, spitting a wide spray of water to try and at least slow the burn.

"The door!" responded the jinchuriki. He indicated that there was, indeed, a door arguably available, if one discounted the six-foot tall flames that refused to die to the water jutsu.

"Y-you're crazy!" yelled Sasuke, once his mouth was no longer full of water.

"I'll heal!" argued the jinchuriki, dropping his combustible supplies as he ran toward the burning door. He'd held the seal back against pain before; he'd have to do so again. He'd save that man, the man he didn't know. Someone's family, someone's friend. It didn't matter who. He had to prove he could, prove he was a human, prove he cared for other humans. He had the power to save him, he knew it.

He felt another torrent of water from behind, and it helped calm the flames immediately in front somewhat, but not completely. As he reached the threshold of the flame, the pain was excruciating. He felt the chakra moving, but he forced it back, hard. That hurt just as much as the fire and his swiftly developing burns, as he vaguely heard the hissing over the fire, stuttering it with each push back. The smoke in here was blinding, and he was practically choking in the few small areas he found not ablaze, when he could focus slightly less on the seal.

He'd find the man. Find him, then break out from inside, break down a wall and carry him out before the burning building collapsed on him. "Where are you!?" he shouted into the blaze.

"W-what the hell are you doing!? G-get out while you can!" yelled a voice somewhere in the building. He could follow it.

"Not without you!" the jinchuriki shouted back.

"Y-you're insane! You've still got your whole life-" The man was interrupted by another crashing sound.

The jinchuriki pressed forward, ignoring the sound of the building falling apart around him, ignoring the pain of the burns reaching deeper into his flesh, and still pushing back hard against the demonic chakra inside. Finally, he got through and saw the man. He was a broad- shouldered, late middle-aged man with long grey hair and a short beard, with yellow eyes and deep lines across his cheeks. He also wore a bandanna that reminded the boy of Amaru's. The man looked terrified.

He looked around, and saw the walls. He could break through, with enough force. "I'll make us an exit!" He charged toward a frail-looking wall, intent on charging right through. With the strength from the fox's leaked chakra, he was sure he could.

Then, another crashing sound, directly above. Big, heavy, _burning_ beams crashed through the ceiling and nearby walls, pinning him down and burning him even deeper. He struggled to get out, and struggled even further against the fox's chakra.

"Dammit, I'll get _you_ out, then!" yelled the man, as he started trying to pry off the beams. He didn't realize there was a lot more danger than that from the fire and the collapsing building.

"No! Get away!" yelled the jinchuriki, now focusing almost exclusively on keeping the demonic chakra in the seal. He could make out the hissing still, but his efforts to push back the chakra were no longer stuttering it. "Get back, you'll die!" he cried frantically.

The man ignored it. "_I'll_ die!? Dammit boy, _you're_ the one pinned under burning debris!" The man was tough, and stronger than he looked. He was actually lifting some of the beams off, and soon the genin's right arm was free.

He used it to try and push the man _back, away!_ There wasn't time left! "_Please get back!_" He felt the chakra reaching the end of the delaying seal, despite his best efforts to stave it off. He shoved the man as hard as he could with his free hand. "_You'll die! I'm about to-_"

Then it happened. The fox's chakra, held back as long as he could against the pain and horrible burns, released rapidly and swelling out into the demonic body and breaking apart the walls of the building, sending the burning debris out in all directions. The fox's front right leg shot out, following the boy's outstretched arm, and...

...

He looked up from his suddenly higher perspective. The town was in flames, all around, and he was laying in a pile of burning rubble. On his right hand...

"**O-oh god...**"

...the man who had been trying his hardest a moment ago to save the boy's life hung limply, skewered by a massive, demonic claw.

He started back up onto his back legs. "**Please...no...gah...**" His voice started to falter at the sight, and he fell back into a sitting position with a crash before he could right himself, more of the burning remains of the building sliding off of the fox's body. "**Argh gah...**" Words failed him as his voice degenerated into an indistinct, wailing roar.

He heard a shriek, and halted his cacophonous voice. "SHINNOU-SENSEI!" He looked around, toward the source of the sound. It was the girl from before, Amaru. This man, he had been a doctor, one who saved the lives of others. He had been the closest thing to a parent, to a family that Amaru had left. Now, he was gone.

He didn't know what to do. To say. To think. He lost all sense. He just...moved. He planted his foot back down, depositing the impaled man on the ground, and started to run, breaking up what remained of the building and charging through the wall behind. He was going out, out into the forest beyond. He didn't know where he was going. He was heading nowhere. Somewhere. Anywhere. But not here. Never here.


	17. A Big Failure

A Big Failure

[Ruins of Town]

The fire roared on over much of the town as the massive form of the Nine-Tails faded from view in the forest. Sakura Haruno was understandably taken be surprise by her teammate's sudden transformation, but was even more shocked at the reaction of a returning medic-in-training.

She tried to put together what just happened. She had been looking for survivors in buildings that Kakashi had extinguished with his water jutsu, but mostly finding the dead. Suddenly, she felt the Nine-Tails forming, with chakra unrestrained, but without killing intent. At the same time, she heard a loud sound, presumably of a building being broken apart. She and Kakashi had rushed toward the source of the chakra. She heard her teammate's deep, transformed voice, but couldn't make out what he was saying.

Then, she heard a shriek in a familiar voice, and saw Amaru, who looked like the world had just fallen apart around her. Then, she looked closer at her teammate, at his paw and...

...

Amaru's world had fallen apart around her.

_**Where's Sasuke-kun!?**_

At that panicked thought, she searched around, near the base of the wreckage the jinchuriki was now sitting in. Fortunately, she saw him, but his left arm looked burned. She ran up. "S-Sasuke-kun!" she shouted, getting the boy's attention. Then, she heard more rumbling over the remaining fire, and she saw that her transformed teammate was moving, dropping what was left of the old doctor and running off into the woods. She wasn't sure, but...she could've sworn she saw tears in the giant, vulpine eyes.

"I'm heading after the jinchuriki," the ANBU's voice suddenly said.

She then turned her head back to her teammate. Specifically, his arm. Thankfully, it looked like the burns were only first-degree. "It's...it's not as bad as it looks," he said, apparently noticing her attention to the arm.

"S-so, what happened?" she asked, still somewhat shaken.

"There was someone in that house," Sasuke explained. "It was caught up in the inferno, too hot to put out, but that _idiot_ ran in to try and save the person anyway." He then looked at the remains of the house and the hole in the wall behind it. "It...it didn't go well."

"Sasuke!" said Kakashi suddenly. "Don't get too distracted! Back to work on the fire!" Sasuke got up to do as instructed. Sakura had half a mind to follow him, helping look for survivors. She also had at least part of a mind to follow after her other teammate. Then, she heard the crying, which brought her back to the scene she was in.

That girl, Amaru, was kneeling over he dead sensei. Sakura started walking over to her slowly. Then, though, she heard a strangled voice. "Don't." The voice was barely recognizable as Amaru's. Sakura kept moving forward, and reached an arm for her shoulder.

The young girl recoiled from the kunoichi's grasp and swung an arm, which Sakura reflexively dodged. "_I said don't!_" Her face was twisted in pain, rage, and despair.

"A-Amaru?"

"Haven't you done enough damage already!?" she cried at the kunoichi.

"W-what do you mean? We didn't-"

"I _felt_ it, when that _monster_ appeared and...!" she yelled, then her voice became much quieter. "But, I remembered. I'd felt that before." She...she couldn't mean... "Yes, I felt it from that other ninja you had with you, the blond one."

"He...I know he didn't mean-"

"You brought a monster into our town, you _know_ you did! And he destroyed it, killed the people, and now, now Sh-Shinnou-sensei's...he's dead! _Dead!_" She was practically screaming now. "_I-I never want to see a ninja again!_"

There would be no reasoning with her for now. But...she knew. Knew about the jinchuriki, who it was. Did...did that mean Sakura had to...? She wasn't sure what to do, what she should, could do. She just walked away, leaving the girl in her grief. Maybe she could be of use to Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun. Somehow.

"Sakura," said her sensei, turning the kunoichi's attention over to the man who was very suddenly right next to her. "I don't think we can help her work through this right now. But, I have a question."

Sakura was now very nervous. He must've heard the conversation.

"Did she know any...compromising information?" He had to know. He had to. Sensei caught _everything_, and Amaru hadn't been quiet.

...

"No," Sakura lied.

Her sensei stared at her for a long moment with his lone, unblinking eye. "...Very well. Sasuke and I will work on the fire here. You should see if Tenzo needs any help."

"Yes, sensei," she said without feeling.

Her sensei formed a solid clone of some form, it looked like a mud clone this time, and then returned to his work on controlling the fire with Sasuke-kun, leaving Sakura to make her own way out into the forest with the clone as company. She supposed it was due to the chance that those ninja bandits were still around somewhere. She looked out, past the ruined wall, into the recklessly smashed trees beyond it, going beyond her line of sight, but she could definitely feel he was out there, with that massive chakra weight pushing against her internally.

_**This fucking sucks.**_

[Somewhere in the Land of Fire]

He wasn't sure when he had stopped running, but the sun had set and the moon had risen. He knew it wasn't far enough, though.

He could still see that man, see the man trying to save him, pry him out of the rubble, see the man looking up at him in shock, see the man going limp on his hand.

He could still hear his apprentice screaming his name, see her looking at him with a fear, a very real fear, one he didn't need to try to sense, if he could do so now.

He still saw what he'd done, how he'd killed an innocent man. No, a _great_ man, a _hero_ of the town, of the _people_, of one girl.

Shinnou was strong, strong enough to get him out of the collapsed debris. Shinnou could've gotten himself out, could've gotten to safety, could've lived, if he hadn't interfered. Maybe even if he just hadn't tried to push the doctor away, Shinnou would've survived the burst of demonic chakra.

He thought that maybe, if he ran far enough away, he would forget all of that. But they followed him. The visions, the sounds, the memories.

...

"**I'm sorry,**" he said to the man. "**I'm so sorry,**" he said to the girl. "**Please forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt anyone.**" There was nobody there to hear him, but he kept apologizing anyway. Maybe he'd feel better, maybe the memories would go away on their own after they were satisfied, since running hadn't helped. He heard a faint crying again, but did his best to ignore it.

[Somewhere in the Land of Fire]

Tenzo had finally caught up to his charge, deep in the torn-up woodlands. The transformed boy was curled up in a giant ball of fur, tails, claws, teeth, and tears, repeatedly apologizing to someone that wasn't there. It didn't bode well for the boy's psyche.

"Naruto!" he yelled. The boy didn't seem to hear him. "Naruto Uzumaki!" No response.

He sighed, and figured he'd attempt to revert the boy, performing the hand signs, summoning the totems, and reaching a hand on the closest bit of the fox's body. It would sting for the moment of contact; he could feel that the boy wasn't holding back the demonic chakra right now.

But, as the jutsu progressed, he wasn't making any headway. The boy was too agitated to revert like this. "Naruto! Naruto Uzumaki! I need you to calm down!" Still nothing.

Time to get a little more drastic. In full tailed beast form, the boy couldn't really be harmed, in Tenzo's experience, but he had to be careful; he didn't want to risk somehow bringing the fox to a rage. So, he started small, throwing a set of kunai at the fox's curled-up form, each embedded slightly into the fur. No rage, fortunately, but no other response, either. This was going to be a long night.

Eventually, the boy's kunoichi teammate showed up, accompanied by Kakashi-sempai. Sort of. The mud clone of the cycloptic jounin quickly dissolved after the two arrived on site; the real Kakashi was probably still busy in town.

"Naruto?" the newly arrived kunoichi asked the tailed beast form tentatively.

"I've been trying to get his attention," Tenzo explained to the girl with a sigh. "I can't revert him until he calms down."

"Naruto!" she yelled in a shrill voice. The girl had some lungs. But, to no avail.

She sighed. "Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun are trying to put out the rest of the fire. We've got to get him back, somehow."

"Yes, but we don't have a good method to do so. I've spent awhile trying to get his attention, and haven't had any luck. Besides that, my wooden constructs will just fall apart if I try to move him with them like he is now."

The girl seemed to think a moment. Then, she took a deep breath, and...

[Somewhere in the Land of Fire]

"_Oi! Kyu-Kyu-kun! Wake up!_"

What the hell did Sakura just call him?

...Sakura?

He uncurled somewhat and looked around a moment, and sure enough, there she was, along with Tenzo-sensei.

"**Wha...what are you doing here?**" he asked.

"Looking for you," Sakura replied simply. "Something happened and you ran off."

Tears returned to the fox's eyes, continuing to soak the fur on its face below. "**I killed him,**" he choked out. "**I killed Shinnou.**"

The kunoichi didn't seem to have anything to say to that. She just looked away with a pained expression, unable to meet his eyes.

"**I just keep seeing him, hearing it happen, hearing her, and I can't get away from it.**" The giant, vulpine face turned over toward the ANBU. "**What do I do?**" he asked his sensei. "**What do I do with my guilt?**"

"That's a hard question," the ANBU admitted. "There's not really a good answer, at least nothing that'll make it go away like you want it to."

The jinchuriki listened intently, putting aside memories for a moment.

"I've done things before, some I regretted immediately, others that I came to regret later. I've killed people, guilty and innocent alike, and it _hurts like hell_ when you realize what you've done," he continued. Indeed, it still had to hurt, the jinchuriki realized. He could feel the man's guilt and pain, from memories unknowable. The jinchuriki must've gotten past whatever was blocking his sense before. "But, it's something I got over and learned to live with, something _you_ can get over and learn to live with.

"I won't lie and tell you it's not your fault or anything like that. It just delays things, until they crash down even harder later on. What you can do is face your guilt, accept it as part of you. _Accept_ those memories of your failure. Use them to better yourself. Learn from your mistakes, learn why you made them. Figure out how you might not make them next time. Learn about the consequences of your mistakes, and figure out what you can do to mitigate them. Finally, for those who are dead, keep living; live in a way that honors them and their memories, a way that would make them proud. It's not an immediate absolution of your pain, but having a plan, an idea, it helps dull it, and lets you get on with your life."

Some of it seemed familiar, it reminded him a little of what he was told by... "**Kakashi-sensei,**" he said suddenly. "**Kakashi-sensei said something similar, that he would work to honor his fallen teammates and their memories, to make it feel better for him.**"

"Kakashi-sempai has had a...difficult career, as well, and seen and done things I couldn't. I'd take his words to heart, along with my own," the ANBU said.

He thought a moment. "**I should talk with Amaru.**"

Sakura looked pained again. "I...I don't think that'll work," she said simply, but he could feel there was a lot more to it from her inner turmoil. "She's...not handling it well. I don't think you could make anything better with her right now."

"Still, we have to go back," Tenzo said. "The rest of the team will be waiting for us. Let's get you back to normal and head back."

As he felt the fox's chakra receding once again, he was left to his thoughts. He still didn't feel so good about going back...there. But, he'd live. He'd get over it, in time.

[Ruins of Town]

A black-haired genin was exhausted, both in musculature and in chakra, long before the town was actually extinguished, even after having consumed a soldier pill. Also, horribly dehydrated, even after having drunk all the canteens of water he had brought for the mission. He was happy to have a new jutsu, of course, extra power and all, but the Sharingan wasn't the end-all and be-all of learning jutsu. He had gained one specific thing he could do: he could expend quite a large amount of chakra to spray a fair amount of water at a significant enough spread and pressure so as to be useful for extinguishing something the size of a building.

But, that wasn't necessarily going to be very practical for much else. Without the actual understanding of the jutsu he might've gained while learning it the standard way, he wasn't going to be able to narrow it into a powerful blast for combat, or cut down the chakra use for a smaller variant.

Furthermore, it dehydrated him horribly, especially after a use in a localized area, and even more especially in an area with very little water available, such as a burning town.

Still, the town, or what remained of it, was no longer burning, and he supposed that was the goal of his learning that jutsu anyway. They had found a few survivors, and a few...less lucky. Corpses, burned by the flame or slain by the bandit-playing ninjas that had all managed to escape or kill themselves.

And now that the adrenaline had worn off, he also realized that his arm hurt. A lot. Damn fire... At least it wasn't anything serious in the long term. A medical ninja back in Konoha would be able to repair it in under a minute.

Still, damn this mission. There was some piece, some detail, that he had overlooked, somewhere. This shouldn't have happened now. Unless...maybe there was just some other factor. Maybe there was just some other well-hidden, unguessable secret. Maybe, as hard as he looked, he never would've found out why what happened did...

Now, though, the survivors were gathered and interviewed. Reports of bandits attacking, mostly. Some thought the bandits summoned some kind of fire demon. Probably a reference to his teammate, but the ninjas _might_ have summoning contracts. Still, nothing practical, nothing workable. Another dead end on this enigma.

Eventually, the remainder of his teammates and his one teammate's minder arrived. The blond's clothing was not nearly as burnt up as expected, but he probably had just changed to a fresh set previously stored in a scroll. The ANBU must've had one spare, because Sasuke still had his teammate's supplies.

Of the survivors, of which their original client was sadly not one, most had gathered to see them off, thankful that they had saved who they were able.

Amaru, however, was nowhere to be found. Sasuke supposed he couldn't blame her. Her sensei _did_ just die, and it sounded like she blamed them, from the shouted conversation with Sakura. He must've meant a lot to her, from what Sakura had told him about her before they first left, how-

Sasuke very nearly tripped and fell on his face.

_Wasn't her sensei supposed to be out of town!?_


	18. A Big Exam

A Big Exam

[Hokage's Office]

Some rather disastrous reports confronted Hiruzen Sarutobi in his office. A town in the Land of Fire had been essentially wiped off the map, the refugees having fled elsewhere, bringing some reports of bandits and other reports of a gigantic demon.

Now, he had various Fire nobles bringing concerns about the stability of the jinchuriki that had "laid waste to an inhabited town!" and "murdered hundreds of innocent civilians!". Concerns he couldn't ignore, despite having a better idea of what had happened from the mission reports. He needed to allay their fears, or things could get pretty bad for Konoha.

At the same time, he had to deal with organizing the international Chunin Selection Exams, and didn't need any more dis- Wait. He had an idea to prove the stability of their jinchuriki. He'd just have to warn the various Konoha jounin senseis beforehand, because he didn't like the idea of pitting his own people unknowingly against an S-rank opponent.

[Konoha]

A certain S-rank opponent was heading into town to meet with his team for a, well, meeting. They hadn't been told ahead of time what it was about, but Kakashi was insistent they be there.

He was used to his subtle ANBU escort through town, and his limited choice of routes. He just walked on the preplanned route, going over the last mission over and over. How was he supposed to honor the fallen doctor?

He was interrupted by something he was _not_ used to: some people had ended up in the moving blockade around him. A few ANBU were talking with what appeared to be a man in a cat suit with purple face paint and a rolled up coffin with a wig, along with a blonde with a giant metal...object, of some form, and a short kid with a scarf, a pair of goggles and spiky, brown hair.

Looking more carefully, he saw an hourglass symbol on cat-suited shinobi's and blond kunoichi's forehead protectors, indicating they were foreign ninja from the allied village of Suna.

It looked like they were being escorted away, above the cries of "I-I didn't know he was the Hokage's grandson, honest!" and "Dammit, Kankuro, we just got here and you're already going to get us thrown out!" Somewhere in this, the shinobi identified as "Kankuro" spotted him and stared for a few moments.

He then suddenly shut up and began to sweat profusely. The Suna kunoichi, presumably his ally, did the same after a moment. The jinchuriki could sense the raw fear in them quite strongly. _They know,_ he realized.

He then noticed that he could feel something else, from a tree near them. It was...a bizarre mixture of negative emotions in that tree. Hatred, bloodlust, loneliness, despair, and several others he couldn't identify. He saw some ANBU at the base of the tree, motioning the ball of complexes down from its perch. It was...a red-headed boy with dark circles around his eyes, along with a symbol for "love" in red above his left eye. On his back, we wore a giant gourd. On his face, the blond recognized...a faint smile?

When he felt closer, though, he felt almost as if...the boy had _two_ sources of negative emotions. The second was much stronger, and much less identifiable. What caused that, anyway?

Still, he had places to go, and information to report, that somehow, his identity was known by foreign ninja.

...

While he did technically have "places to go", he supposed that staying to dwell on the red-headed shinobi from Suna likely wouldn't actually make him later than his sensei.

[Konoha]

Kankuro remembered a briefing from before their arrival, as well as the process of memorizing a picture of a blond jinchuriki from Konoha, one to "avoid at all costs", "flee on sight of", and "just run the hell away from". Now, on his first day, he had gotten a lot closer to this jinchuriki than he and his team had really planned on.

Fortunately, they hadn't interacted with him in any significant way. He had no doubt that if they hadn't been intercepted by those ANBU and escorted out, he would be a smear on the pavement at this point. Maybe bullying the grandson of a Kage wasn't always a bad thing to get caught doing.

After they'd been moved elsewhere, reunited with Baki-sensei and, after a short time, their youngest sibling, the red-headed Gaara, he noticed a change in his little brother's demeanor. Specifically, he was trembling. Was...was Gaara afraid? He had every right to be, Kankuro supposed, but... Wait, he was...smiling.

Gaara was shivering in excitement. After meeting the one thing in Konoha they absolutely, positively had to stay away from.

_This. Did. Not. Freaking. Bode. Well._

[Team 7's Training Ground]

A pink-haired kunoichi waited with her stoic teammate, expecting to soon encounter their blond genin teammate, and eventually their sensei. Sasuke-kun had been somewhat more open to her, responding to things she said, as long as they weren't about going out on a date or anything remotely similar.

That said, he seemed really distracted by something lately. Probably that last C-rank mission. She was still thinking about it, too, and she was certain their other teammate was, as well.

"Sorry I'm a little late. I ran into some Suna ninja on the way." She turned to the source of the excuse for tardiness.

"Oh? Why are there Suna ninja here, anyway?" she asked of her newly arrived teammate.

He just shrugged. "Don't know." Then, his demeanor changed for the darker. "I...I think they knew what I was."

Sakura's blood suddenly ran ice cold. _Was it Amaru!?_ she thought in a panic. _Did foreign shinobi find out about Konoha's jinchuriki because I left her alive!?_

"Is something wrong, Sakura?" asked the jinchuriki. Damn negative emotion sensing!

"I...you...they..." She was having a lot of trouble constructing an actual sentence. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, okay," said the blond acceptingly.

Eventually, Kakashi-sensei arrived. The grey-clad blond turned to him. Sakura realized that he was going to tell sensei what he told them.

"I ran into some Suna shinobi in town today," he began, shifting uncomfortably. "I'm not sure why they were here, but they were terrified of me. I think they knew what I am."

"That _is_ curious, that they know," Kakashi began, "but ultimately not such a big deal in the long term. People are going to find out pretty soon publicly anyway." Sakura was uplifted, but confused.

"Why?" all three genin members of Team 7 asked at once, before momentarily looking at each other with their own confusion.

"You're all being signed up for the international Chunin Selection Exams!" he stated happily.

"_What!?_" asked the team as a whole again, not even bothering to look at each other this time.

"Uh, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura. "Are we really ready for that?"

"Eh, as a team, that's a definite 'Maybe'. But, you're getting press-ganged into it this time, I'm afraid," he explained. "It's about that last mission." The team suddenly froze. "We know what _really_ happened, but a bunch of important people think Naruto here went on a rampage." Sakura could practically see her blond teammate trying to mentally strangle himself.

Kakashi continued, either unaware or uninterested in the boy's reaction. "We've got to publicly prove that he's a safe, cuddly jinchuriki." Sakura didn't know if that was provable.

The meeting continued, explaining some information about the exam itself, where to meet for it, and the inherent dangers. Kakashi did inform them that the dangerous part of the exam that they were required to stay for was going to be a team section, so, if necessary, they could all essentially hide behind their jinchuriki teammate and get through alive. They could forfeit at the next portion, and the portion before was inherently without significant danger. Sakura's worries about the exam were reasonably allayed, as well as her fear of the consequences of what she'd failed to do on the last mission.

[North of Konoha]

The exam, they were told, was starting in a building north of Konoha. They had been given a map to locate it. It turned out not to be far from the blond's quasi-temporary home, so it was convenient for him, at least.

The large one-story building where the exam was starting was very suspiciously wooden and freshly painted, with a few glass windows installed. He could probably guess where it came from, as well as why it was assembled.

Just inside, Team 7 found itself waiting in a featureless room with several other genin teams from various nations. Looking around, he saw the Suna team in the corner, who had noticed them walking in, and two of whom had begun sweating profusely yet again.

He saw a team from Kusa, including one red-haired kunoichi with glasses who was staring directly at him, with a nervous expression. Another leak? _Old man, once again, some S-rank secret,_ he thought. Her companions included a bald ninja in a mask and either a shinobi or a kunoichi with long, dark hair and a straw hat that still seemed to have the price tag hanging off of it. Wait, on closer inspection, the tag just had the symbol for "evil" on it over and over again.

Discounting the questionable style, the kunoichi or shinobi (too many scents to identify him or her from here) looked at him with a nervous, but serious expression.

He also saw some teams from Konoha, such as- "SASUKE-KUN!" -Ino's team, which seemed to include Shikamaru, Choji, and the aforementioned platinum blonde who was hurtling toward the quiet Uchiha.

She then seemed to slow down considerably when she was close and caught sight of the jinchuriki. _S-rank secret._

"H-hello, Sasuke-kun. I-it's nice to s-see you h-here."

Ino's impression of Hinata didn't go unnoticed. "He's safe," Sasuke said simply, glancing slightly toward the blond. The kunoichi let out a breath suddenly, and the jinchuriki could feel her fear largely dissipating. She then continued to try and talk with the raven-haired genin, apparently not noticing how one-sided the conversation was getting.

Out of the corner of his eye, the blond saw Hinata, along with Shino and Kiba. Kiba looked very slightly nervous, but Hinata actually managed a small smile at him. Shino's expression was hidden behind sunglasses and a tall collar, but the blond could tell that the Aburame seemed unconcerned with him.

Lastly, he saw a few other familiar faces, from a previous year in the academy. "Naruto-kun! It is wonderful to see your youthfulness this day!" yelled a voice he was familiar with. It was Lee, his thick-eyebrowed fellow in lack of chakra-utilizing talent. The boy smiled somewhat to see his old somewhat-friend again.

"Hello, Lee. It's been a bit," he said, as the green-clad, bowl-cut genin approached him. "It looks like you've grown a lot" _stranger_ "stronger since I last saw you."

"Indeed! Thank you! I hope to see how _you've_ grown, as well as test myself against the famed Sasuke Uchiha!" The famed Sasuke Uchiha looked over and regarded the green-clad genin, still ignoring Ino. After a moment, his gaze went back toward the crowd of genin.

A shivering, nervous kunoichi (_S-rank secret. Did someone just inform all the genin teams for the exam?_) with brown hair done up in buns (Tenten, if the blond remembered her name correctly) put a hand on the green-clad genin's shoulder. "Lee, m-maybe you can talk with N-Naruto la-"

"Nonsense! Now is the time to reunite with a long-unseen ally!"

A shivering, nervous shinobi with long hair and pale, featureless eyes (Neji, if the blond remembered his name correctly) put another hand on the green-clad genin's shoulder. "Lee, w-we talked about this. I ch-checked, h-he's... You sh-should stay b-back from-"

"Nonsense! I'm certain Naruto-kun's youthfulness can hold baff ammy ernflrns fmm..." Now he had two hands clamped on his mouth, one from each of his teammates.

As Lee looked around, though, his eyes widened a moment, and he broke free, suddenly rushing up to Sakura. "You are the most beautiful kunoichi I have ever met! Please go out with me!"

The most beautiful kunoichi Lee had ever met looked aghast. "Umm... I'd rather not, I'm-"

"_Alright maggots, listen up!_" bellowed a voice from a door at the end of the room, interrupting their conversation. It belonged to a scarred shinobi wearing a dark coat and a bandanna-like forehead protector. "It's time to start the first test in the Chunin Selection Exam! I'm your proctor for this part, Ibiki Morino! Get into the next room, sit in your assigned seat, and shut up!"

Team 7, along with the other genin teams, began to do as instructed, filing into the next room.

As the rules for what was apparently a written test were explained, the blond considered his assigned seat. He was sitting immediately next to an open door to the outside, which was placed right next to a window that clearly showed that the area outside was a wide, empty field with nothing that might accidentally be crushed by the sudden appearance of a very large creature. This confirmed his suspicion on _why_ the building was purpose built so far outside of Konoha.

Now that he was seated, he started to feel something. His negative emotion sensing was starting to become vague again. Whatever had happened before, it seemed to be happening again. He still didn't know why...

[Exam Room]

At first, the rules for the exam didn't seem particularly noteworthy. Ten written questions, one of which is hidden until later. One point per question. Loss of two points for each time you were caught cheating, with Ibiki himself and two other watchers doing the catching. Get caught five times, you and your team are out.

One particularly observant genin by the name of Sasuke Uchiha, however, saw more. Getting caught cheating normally meant failing immediately. Here, it just deducted points. So, cheating wasn't strictly disallowed. It was just that cheating badly would cause you to fail.

The Uchiha used his sharingan to quickly find the answers from a few genin that seemed to be having very little trouble with the alarmingly difficult questions. While mostly obstructed, he could sort of see that Sakura was answering questions correctly, as well. Although also mostly obstructed, he saw his remaining teammate having trouble. He didn't know of any methods cheating the blond may have available, but it didn't look like he was even trying to...

A few genin were informed of their failure, and thus that of their teams, by kunai embedded in their wooden desks and a yell from Ibiki. Hmph. They _all_ needed to get through this. Each time one of their teammates cheated, that teammate would lose 2 points. No, each time they got _caught_ cheating. Did that multiply if they were caught for one action by multiple watchers? It might. The raven-haired genin had a plan developing, but it would only work if that wasn't the case.

In short, the fifth cheat caught got you removed. He could think of the other four, however, as _resources_. Instead of looking to get answers with as few caught cheating attempts as possible, he could instead look at how to get all nine questions for each member, for nine points each, with no more than four cheats per member, for loss of eight points each, leaving each in the black, so to speak.

Wait, one genin, the Suna ninja with the black suit, got excused to go to the restroom, and a chunin went with him. In a bit, another as well. There were only three watchers here here in the first place: two chunin and the main proctor. He was down to one, Ibiki himself, and he may never get an opportunity like this again. Time to act on his plan.

Sasuke got up and brazenly swiped an exam from a student near him. In broad daylight and clear view. Ibiki looked at him, mouth slightly open, eyes narrowed, but then looked down and just marked a piece of paper. One attempt caught, three more still safe to make.

"Hey, what the hell!?" yelled the student who was newly relieved of his exam.

"Shut up!" yelled the proctor, sounding irritated, but Sasuke could see that he was doing his best to contain laughter. "Okay, from now on, getting caught stealing an exam outright counts as 5 attempts to cheat." No copycats, then, but he was in the clear.

Now, Sasuke took the exam, carefully and obviously keeping the answers invisible to himself, and scribbled a note:

_Naruto,_

_The exam's a trick. Write your name on this and turn it in._

_Sasuke_

No way to do this discretely, after the show he just made; they'd see him taking the exam under his desk if he tried to write secretly. He saw Ibiki make another mark as he rapidly scribbled the note. Two attempts caught, two more safe to make.

Lastly, he crumpled up the pilfered exam and threw it at his last teammate, again in plain view, not hideable. It landed exactly where he intended, catching the frustrated blond's attention. Three attempts caught, one more safe to make, and he didn't even need it.

He saw his teammate's confused expression as he unfolded the paper and read the note, as well as seeing the answers. One attempt caught against his teammate, three remaining. The blond erased the existing name and wrote in his own. Two caught, two remaining.

Thunk. A kunai was embedded in his desk. Dammit, was he wrong? But, Ibiki wasn't saying anything, just staring at him. The man was smirking smugly at him.

Maybe Ibiki would consider turning in the swiped exam as a third? But, that left one more safe for the blond. Some other watchers were starting to return now. As long as the jinchuriki didn't turn the exam into multiple people at once, they should be home free.

Nothing left now but the tenth question, but at 9 points for himself and his blond teammate, and probably 9 for the Sakura as well, they were sitting well.

In time, Ibiki yelled again. "Okay, time for the tenth question!" This one was different. If they wanted, they could skip it...and be immediately disqualified. _Dammit! The points we got already can't push us through, then!?_ thought Sasuke furiously. Now they were in hot water. Most of his cheats were used, and he probably wasn't going to have another chance for only one proctor to be in the building.

Wait, the other part of the description. If they took the question and answered incorrectly...they'd never get to take another Chunin Selection Exam? That didn't hold water. Other villages weren't bound to the authority of Ibiki Morino, nor were future proctors in Konoha, nor did it seem like an intelligent thing for the Hokage. It had to be a bluff. Taking it couldn't be worse than not taking it. Probably a trick of some form.

Would the rest of his team realize, though?

Sakura, likely. She was a clever one. His other teammate, probably as well, actually. The negative emotion sensing would likely tell him Ibiki was lying, possibly specifically that he was bluffing, though he didn't know what kind of specificity the blond could get.

[Exam Room]

His other teammate wasn't doing quite so well as Sasuke expected. His negative emotion sensing blocked, or disrupted, or whatever it was, he couldn't tell if Ibiki was bluffing or what.

"I'm out," said a genin from somewhere in the room.

"You and your team, get the hell out of here, then," instructed Ibiki.

The blond did know this, though: he couldn't accept a loss. He couldn't now. Too many failures. Too many hits to his own pride, which stubbornly refused to be drowned out. After...what happened on the last mission, he didn't know what he would do if he still failed now.

"Me too," called another genin.

"That guy's team, out of my exam."

He hated it. Hated losing. Hated failure. Hated being disappointed in himself.

"I...I'm done. Sorry, guys."

"You know the drill, up and out of here."

But if he tried to take the question and failed...then what? Wouldn't that be _worse_? Sasuke got him out of a tight spot with the rest of the exam; the jinchuriki still didn't know exactly how he did that. But, he didn't think his teammate could do it again.

"I can't do it! I can't do it! I'm out!"

"Away with you, then! Try again in six months!"

Still, he considered. The rest of his team. Sasuke, Sakura, they tried their hardest, and they knew what they were doing. He didn't want to hold them back here.

"That's all for me. Maybe I'll get a field promotion some time..."

"Well, I wouldn't give it to you. Out!"

He didn't feel like he deserved his strength. It was borrowed from a demon. He was reasonable, but not good. Never good, never thought of highly by the instructors. But he still had his pride, dammit.

"No more, mercy!"

"Mercifully relieve us of your presence!"

He had a few things he was good at. He could do stealth. Heck, he could do stealth in orange. Even if he didn't really feel like wearing the color any more. He could do taijutsu pretty well, too. Back in class, only the rookie of the year was able to beat him every time.

"I've got to give this one up. Please don't hate me, guys."

"No promises. Out with you."

"I meant my team, not you, bastard."

But you know what? He still tried his damnedest. Even if he was bound for failure, he tried jutsu after jutsu, back then. His pride wouldn't let him just leave it alone.

"Anyone else?"

And his pride wouldn't let him give up now. The blond would face this. It was just a damn test question.

"Very well, then. You all pass!" he yelled. What? "You see, the final question was a test of guts, if you will. On a real mission, you'll be going up against unknown enem-"

Suddenly, the exam building was attacked by a psychopath that burst through the window without warning.


	19. A Big Forest

A Big Forest

[Outside the Building]

A certain blond jinchuriki and his team were following a special jounin and/or psychopath by the name of Anko, accompanied by the rest of the teams that had passed the first portion. He figured now was a chance to quietly mention to his team his current quandary.

"My sensing's blinded, like it was on that last mission," he stated. His team seemed caught by surprise.

"What? You figured out Ibiki's trick another way, then?" asked his raven-haired teammate, curiously. He supposed the Uchiha was looking for any other talent he might have not demonstrated until now, but he would be disappointed.

"I didn't, really," the blond admitted. "Just...too stubborn to give up, I guess."

"Well, we're through, so that's good enough, right, Sasuke-kun?" asked his pink-haired teammate.

"For now, it's sufficient," Sasuke responded.

As they continued to walk, they were approached by Ino. Surprisingly, she didn't immediately head to her raven-haired crush, but instead to the jinchuriki. She turned to face him, but had trouble looking him in the eye.

"Hey, Naruto..." she began tentatively. "...Look, I'm sorry. About earlier, I mean. You're...still you, is what I mean." She seemed to be fidgeting, but she did sound sincere. The blond missed his sensing, but he had lived most of his life without it being as strong as it was lately, and he knew other people had gone on well enough without it. For now, he'd take Ino's apology at face value, though.

"It's okay."

Finally, they arrived at a large, fenced-in forest. The jinchuriki found it somewhat familiar-looking, from the outside, but he suspected he'd had a much higher perspective when he'd last seen it.

"Okay, second test is in _this_ wonderful place: my favorite training ground, number 44, the Forest of Death!" she said, adding unnecessary dramatic flair.

Yes, this was one he'd come up to before. He wondered if they'd repaired the eastern fence since one of his, er, mishaps a few weeks back.

The second test's fishnet and trench coat-clad proctor explained what was happening next, while passing out release forms to avoid legal trouble for Konoha. Each team got one of two scrolls, and to pass, a team had to bring both scrolls to the tower in the center. Also, opening the scrolls outside of the tower would be bad, in some unexplored way.

"Now, there are plenty of horrible monsters in the forest that'd _love_ to snack on a cute li'l genin," the proctor continued, "but don't discount your opponents. The wildlife are sure to be _nothing_ compared to some of the monsters we're about to send in." The blond caught a glance and a grin toward him during that last sentence. He supposed that, compared to the previous exam, this was one he probably could excel at, if pressed.

[Forest of Death]

So far, nothing had happened. Team 7 had been wandering through the forest, still without the blond's sensing, and with such a cacophony of scents that he couldn't necessarily detect much further out.

"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke said suddenly. "Go scout ahead in..." He pointed out some direction. "...that direction."

"Why?"

"Don't ask questions, I'm in charge here," he rebuffed, in a way that didn't sound very much like Sasuke had lately. The blond noticed a small hand signal, part of their standard communication. 'Ruse'. So, he was being sent off to trick someone.

"Gah, fine," the blond huffed, marching off. After a short distance, he just went into hiding behind a tree, listening into where his team was.

After a few minutes, he heard a voice that didn't belong to either of his teammates. "Nothing there. Are you happy now?" the voice asked indignantly. He supposed that was how his voice sounded from the outside; he hadn't really had much opportunity to hear it before.

"Hn," responded Sasuke. He still did that sound, it seemed. Then, he heard the sound of a fist hitting a face. Time to return to the fight.

One Ame genin, apparently without his team nearby, was having poor luck fighting the blond's teammates, and it was showing. He was now preparing to retreat, when he suddenly ducked an attack that wasn't there, courtesy of Sakura, before he was caught and restrained by Sasuke and the returning blond.

The blond played his part here, but smelled something...off.

"Where is your scroll?" Sasuke asked seriously.

It smelled like...a snake?

"I-I-I don't have it, i-it's with Ka-Kaga-"

A massive blast of wind interrupted the impromptu interrogation, sending the captured Ame genin and the three members of Team 7 in slightly different directions, though the jinchuriki seemed to be sent the furthest off by far.

As he flew an uncertain distance, battered against a few trees on the way, he heard a short hiss, before he clamped down on the fox's chakra. Then, after he finally skidded to a halt, he heard a different hiss, and smelled snake again. He didn't have time to react as he was suddenly swallowed whole by a gigantic snake. Where had it come from!?

Now, though, the first hissing sound started up again.

The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's body quickly formed from the released chakra, dissipating the snake, flattening nearby trees and towering above the canopy. The suddenly-transformed jinchuriki looked around. He had just been split off of his team by a massive wind of some form, probably a jutsu. He'd have to smell and listen for them, though, given the sight limitations caused by the treetops below his face.

As he sniffed the air, though, he smelled a few things that were closer. Much closer. Multiple targets around him, all smelling of mud and snakes.

To get a better clue of what had decided to pick a fight with the god-damned Nine-Tails, he leaned his head down below the canopy. There he saw a Kusa genin, one from before. Male, he could now recognize by the scent, and still wearing that straw hat with the tag on it.

It seemed like this shinobi and whatever allies he had brought with were actually going to attack him. While he was fully transformed into the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. The jinchuriki didn't know if he had F-rank threat evaluation skills or SS-rank nerves. Or SS-rank stones, as Kakashi-sensei had originally said when describing to the team the kind of ninja that might attack him when he was in full form, but the jinchuriki didn't know what rocks had to do with making really dumb decisions. Maybe something to do with Iwa?

Regardless, he brought a hand down swiftly, but carefully to try and non-lethally immobilize one of the offending genin.

However, the genin was much faster than typical, dodging out of the way after spitting mud where he had been standing. But, it turned out the mud was there for a reason, as the ground below the landing left paw suddenly shot up, putting the jinchuriki slightly off balance. Then, the same occurred on his...the fox's back left leg when he moved it slightly to steady himself, leaving the fox-formed boy tilted at an angle while trying to keep the fox's head down far enough to see.

Finally, he felt the ground giving way to washed-out mud below the fox's right limbs. Now critically overbalanced, the fox-formed boy struggled to move its tails to right itself. But, moving them too quickly could cause severe damage; that's what happened to the eastern fence of this very forest a few weeks back. As such, he wasn't able to regain his balance in time, and in a moment, the fully-transformed jinchuriki toppled embarrassingly onto its back in a newly-developed giant pit of mud.

He could smell more of those mud-and-snake people, all clones, he realized, making the mud hole bigger and bigger, sinking the fox's body deeper and deeper into the ground. Others were making more mud walls outside the pit.

The jinchuriki's generosity and interest in non-lethal immobilization were swiftly deteriorating. While he had to admit that it was an impressive impromptu mud trap to immobilize him, it was definitely not a long term solution to a tailed beast's rampage, and would delay him only for a little bit, before he was free and hunting down this muddy bastard.

Delay him. _Dammit!_ He had just been separated from his teammates, and now, this bastard was just delaying him, as much as possible, to keep him from getting back, leaving the rest of his team _without his help!_

No more time to play in the mud. No more struggling carefully to escape without damage. The jinchuriki began moving the fox's tails. He was going to tear up the ground, wrecking the walls, sending the mud flying, and obliterating any damn Kusa mud ninjas that got the thought into their head to mess with the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.

One tail would suffice. The jinchuriki used two, instead, bringing them upward for a moment, then down toward the ground with their internal charges of chakra.

[Forest of Death]

After the wind jutsu from nowhere had interrupted his interrogation, Sasuke quickly found his kunoichi teammate, but the jinchuriki was nowhere to be found. Probably launched further out somewhere, and also probably very intentional.

The two were swiftly confronted with a long-haired shinobi from Kusa, one Sasuke recognized as a teammate of a redhead and a masked genin. When Sasuke met his eyes, the man immediately let out a burst of killing intent.

...

Maybe that was being generous. The man let out a _puff_ of killing intent. Sasuke's perspective on murderous auras may be somewhat skewed. Regardless, it didn't really affect himself or his teammate, as they immediately started moving to surround him.

The attacking shinobi, however surprised he may have been by their resistance, seemed to have something to say. "I know what you want, Sasuke Uchiha," he said seriously.

The two present members of Team 7 let loose with throwing weapons; shuriken and kunai from different angles from Sasuke, just kunai straight on from Sakura.

"You want revenge on your clan's murderer," he continued, effortlessly dodging the weapons from different angles using minimal, but contortionist movements. One shuriken hit a kunai (a feat made significantly easier with Sasuke's Sharingan), resulting in a "tang" sound.

"But, I know also that you want to take that revenge with your own hands, and not just feed him to Konoha's pet," he continued, the flinch brought on by Sakura's ever-useful genjutsu so minor as to be useless, and merged seamlessly with a the movement of pulling out a kunai and slicing the wire attached to some of Sasuke's own kunai. "I can give you the power to do that."

Power? To kill Itachi? Sasuke was...momentarily intrigued. But, only momentarily.

"I've got other avenues to explore before I take offers from a mysterious stranger that's attacking my team," he said, running through hand signs to active his grand fireball jutsu.

The flame flew from his mouth in a moment, searing toward the remarkably skilled Kusa genin while Sakura sent a brace of additional shuriken from another angle, but the remarkable skill was demonstrated again, as he dodged sideways and avoided both attacks, then immediately redirected to close the distance to Sasuke himself. Then, the man's neck suddenly extended toward him, while he was caught from below by hands of mud. "This is a taste of the power I can grant you!" he shouted before suddenly biting down on the Uchiha's neck.

_**Pain.**_ Whatever the hell that man had just done, Sasuke's neck felt like it was on fire, and it was spreading, _fast_.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted in fear. She heard a racket off in the distance.

"My name is Orochimaru, leader of Otogakure! Seek me out, Sasuke!" the man said, before swiftly vanishing into the forest. Sasuke might've considered how lucky they were to have fought one of the legendary Sannin and survived, or possibly noticed that he had a specific use for him that required him alive, or even noticed how the man must've used a disguise or transformation, as he looked nothing at all like the picture in the bingo book, but he was in too much pain to think about it.

Then, he heard a loud sound in the distance, of something heavy striking the ground. A few moments after that, from the same direction, a massive blast of wind, even bigger than the first, tearing up small plants, stripping bark off the giant trees of the forest, and sending himself and Sakura tumbling away.

After that, he was laying against a tilted tree when he heard the deep sound of heavy steps. His other teammate, finally returning, in full form. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the massive silhouette of his teammate approaching.

[Forest of Death]

Sakura finally got herself reoriented with gravity after having been blown end-over-end for the second time today.

_**Cha! What's with the damn wind today!? The weather report didn't say anything about this!**_ _Er, it's probably not natural wind._

Wait, Sasuke-kun! He had been screaming in pain a moment ago, after that god-damn S-rank missing nin bit him! She looked around, and found him, wrapped around a tree that had begun to tilt precariously in the most recent blast of wind.

She wandered toward him, but she heard a thumping in the background. She looked, and saw a sight most in the world would find horrifying. Her other teammate was finally back, fully transformed, and more than ready to defend them from any further danger. Also, caked in mud.

"**Sakura, what happened to Sasuke?**" the fox's voice asked, sounding worried.

"We got attacked by a Kusa kunoichi. Or shinobi," she stated.

"**Long, dark hair, straw hat with a tag hanging on it?**" the jinchuriki asked.

"The same," she replied.

"**Dammit. That one sent a bunch of mud clones to delay me,**" he said.

"Wait, he said he was Orochimaru. Orochimaru of the Sannin!"

"**What'd he do to Sasuke?**"

"Don't know," she said truthfully. She hadn't really gotten a chance to check. Looking him over now, she wasn't happy, putting some parts in place. "The lunatic _bit_ him, in the neck, and now there's some weird seal here. The bit of medical knowledge I have won't do anything about this, nor any medical ninjutsu, if I knew it yet. Besides that, he's pretty battered up from being blasted by wind twice. I put back some dislocated limbs, but I can only hope nothing is broken."

The jinchuriki turned to look away a moment. "**...Sorry.**"

"...You caused that second blast?"

"**I did. I was trying to get out of some giant mud pit.**"

She looked him over. "Are you sure you didn't just take the mud pit with you? Anyway, we're getting sidetracked. Sasuke-kun needs medical attention above and beyond my knowledge, and he needs it soon."

"**So, we've got to get out of here as fast as we can,**" the jinchuriki concluded. "**But, I think we'd rather not forfeit just yet.**" Then, her teammate looked up suddenly. "**I smell snakes again, but not quite the same,**" he announced.

Someone was coming. After a moment, the alleged proctor for this test (exactly what was she doing as a proctor besides introducing it, anyway?) arrived on the scene.

"So! This is the cute li'l genin making a mess of my favorite training ground?" Anko asked with a cutesy-looking grin, indicating Sakura's transformed teammate.

Sakura balked at that. Kakashi-sensei was apparently not the only one attaching unlikely adjectives to the boy.

"**Umm, I guess.**"

"Eh, don't get hung up on the descriptors," she continued, noting his hesitation. "Anywho, I'm supposed to ask, what's got you up in a huff?"

"**I got separated from them**," he said, indicating his teammates on the forest floor, "**and they were attacked by Orochimaru.**"

Sakura could practically feel the temperature drop as the name was given.

"He bit Sasuke, and now there's a weird seal on his neck," informed Sakura.

"_Dammit!_ That seal has a 90% fatality rate!" said Anko.

"_What!?_ Sasuke-kun!" Sakura looked back down at Sasuke in a panic while Anko hurried over to see it.

After a moment of careful examination of the three-point pattern of the seal, the woman let out a breath. "If it was going to kill him, it should've started looking unstable by now," she informed them. The younger kunoichi's relief was palpable. "Unless he's changed the seal design quite a bit. Very possible; it's been awhile since the cases I know of."

"Now...where did he go?" she asked with a voice that Sakura noted made even the transformed jinchuriki flinch slightly.

"H-he went that way," Sakura responded, pointing to a direction deeper into the forest.

"Come on, Fuzzy, your nose will be useful! And the rest of you might be useful, too! Let's go hunt us a pale-skinned bastard!" declared Anko, summoning a snake of her own. "This guy'll keep your team safe," she said specifically to Sakura. "Your little Uchiha friend will be out awhile yet; careful when he wakes up."

And so, the proctor and the jinchuriki ran off, leaving Sakura with just the company of a sizeable snake and her unconscious teammate.

[Forest of Death]

"**The scent dies here,**" the jinchuriki announced. They had gotten to the edge of a river. The Naka river, if the jinchuriki remembered his geography correctly.

"_Dammit!_" yelled Anko. "Must've washed out his scent. Probably planned this all out ahead of time."

The jinchuriki wasn't feeling so great about this whole exam now. He'd gotten separated from his team, played like a violin by what was apparently a missing nin while his team was attacked, and now he hadn't been able to find the attacker to get rid of him for good.

Also, when he'd smelled the forest to try and track him, aside from the short traces before he washed his scent away and the various other teams, including classmates and that Suna team, he smelled something...someone he really shouldn't. He supposed it was just some phantom of his memory, his guilty conscience messing with him.

The proctor sighed before continuing in a more subdued tone. "Guess I should let you get back to your team. Listen, I can't really help with that seal on your teammate now, but your sensei should be able to do something to help deal with it, at least for awhile. Longer term, he'll have to learn to tough it out." She sighed again. "But, that stuff can't be done right now; test's still going on.

"Go finish making a mockery of my exam, Fuzzy," she instructed, her tone more cheerful. _Again_ with that name... "When your unfortunate teammate comes to, he's going to be pretty crazy for awhile. Keep him from doing anything stupid; he'll come back to his senses after a bit."

With that, Anko jumped away, leaving the transformed blond to return to his team. Once he arrived, the spare guard snake vanished, and the jinchuriki took a moment to explain what the proctor had told him.

"Okay, time to clear the exam, then?" Sakura asked.

The jinchuriki nodded the fox's head. "**Looks like it,**" he said, sniffing the air. Then, her teammate moved the fox's massive body down to ground level. "**Climb onto the back with Sasuke, and keep a little distance from him. It'll probably be safer for you two to come with than to stay around here.**"

"But, the mud..."

The vulpine face stared at her with an expression that, despite the inhuman features, was clearly unimpressed.

"Right, sorry. I'll get Sasuke-kun up and we'll be ready to move."

[Suna, Previously]

"Gaara, you're not getting this," Baki-sensei began again. "You are _not_ to engage Konoha's jinchuriki."

The boy looked back impassively. "I will do what I must to prove my existence."

Kankuro spoke up, sounding nervous. "G-Gaara, he's, like n-nine times as powerful as you."

"Wrong," said Baki, suddenly, to Temari's surprise.

"W-wait, is he _not_ really stronger...?" asked Temari, a little confused.

"Let me make this clear. The tails of tailed beast are _not_ a linear scale of power." He held up one finger. "One. That's Gaara, at full power." Two fingers. "Two." Three fingers. "_Four._" Four fingers. "_Eight._" Five fingers. "_Sixteen._" Six fingers. "_Thirty-two._" Seven fingers. "_Sixty-four._" Eight fingers. "_**One hundred and twenty-eight.**_" Finally, nine fingers. "_**TWO. HUNDRED. AND. FIFTY. SIX.**_"

Temari couldn't even move.

"Gaara. If you try to fight against the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki as you are now, he will not help you 'prove your existence,'" he bit out. "He will _end_ it. Swiftly, and _painfully_."

[Forest of Death]

The monster, two hundred and fifty-six times worse than Gaara at his absolute worst, was heading straight at them. Fast.

They'd been fighting a team of Ame genin, one of whom had foolishly tried to attack Gaara with umbrellas. Okay, not as ridiculous as it sounded at first; the umbrellas did shoot a ton of senbon from every direction, but still, ineffective against the jinchuriki's shield of sand.

Then, before Gaara could go on the offense, a massive blast of wind had roared through the forest, knocking the Ame team away and scattering the Suna team for a moment. They'd gathered back together, and started moving, hoping to find another team with the appropriate scroll, get to the tower, and be finished with the test before they encountered something they couldn't fight. Then, Gaara suddenly looked to the west of them with a wicked grin.

From that direction, she heard a sound. Deep, repeating thumping. Getting louder. Getting closer. Too late, Temari realized what it was.

The massive body moved through the forest, undeterred by the trees its legs recklessly knocked over. It broke through the edge into the clearing they were in, the shockwaves of its rapid movement knocking the Suna team, minus Gaara, off its feet. It finally stopped a short distance into their little clearing. Now, she could see its horrible face above the trees, with hundreds of razor sharp teeth and red, slitted, angry eyes. Looking down at them.

"Yes... _Yes!_" Gaara suddenly shouted. "You shall prove my existence, Nine-Tails!" Gaara brought both arms toward the superior foe, and a massive wave of sand shot forth, from around him and from what remained in the gourd.

The wave of sand crashed against the front of the fox like a wave of water against a cliff. Gaara's attack had done _absolutely nothing._ Wait, no. It had made the beast focus its gaze on him in particular.

Then, it's left hand lifted off the ground and snatched up her youngest brother from where he stood, still dumbfounded at his attack's utter failure. The massive fist closed around him completely. For a moment, she saw a burst of sand from the ground below and somewhat from the fist trying to encircle the arm, trying to crush in on it to loosen the grip, but again, to no avail.

Temari could only watch in horror as the massive fist of the Nine-Tails seemed to slowly crush inward on her brother.

He's gone. Her baby brother's gone. She should leave, _now,_ before that _thing_ turns on _her_. Take Kankuro, accept the loss, mourn for Gaara later. "Stop!" she yelled. _Why!?_ she thought frantically. _What the hell am I doing!?_ "Please let him go!" _This is stupid! He was dead as soon as he was caught!_

The beast's face turned toward her. _I'm going to die, too, now._ "I'll...I'll let you have our scroll!" She pulled out the scroll she had; Gaara wasn't necessarily one to trust with it. _Why the hell would that thing care about the damn _scrolls!?_ Leave now! Take Kankuro, or even leave him, he'll slow you down, just get the hell away from it!_

Her opponent stared at her for a moment with its horrifying face. Then, it's mouth full of sharp teeth moved. "**Okay.**" It shifted its weight onto the elbow of the arm holding her brother and offered its open right paw toward her. She put the scroll into it, then the beast lowered the hand holding her brother. It released him, along with the pile of sand he had been using to stave off death.

Then, the fox's head turned back toward her littlest brother. "**Do not kill any Konoha ninja.**" With that, it put the scroll on its back, turned around, and walked away, the loud thumping of its footsteps fading back into the forest.

She shouldn't be alive right now. None of them should. Temari had no idea what to think any more; she was too shellshocked.

Then, she heard a sniffling, and then a wailing. It was...Gaara?

She cautiously approached her youngest brother, who was still sitting in the pile of sand where he'd been dropped. Sure enough, tears flowed freely from his eyes.

"M-Mother said I was gonna d-die," he cried, now turning toward his sister. "She w-was scared! I was gonna die!" Then, he did something Temari never expected of the jinchuriki that routinely threatened her and Kankuro with death. Her brother embraced her, burying his face in her chest.

"It's...it's okay, Gaara. You're going to be fine." Temari began to cry, too.


	20. A Big Elimination Round

A Big Elimination Round

[Forest of Death]

While riding toward the tower, Sakura noticed a stirring from her unconscious teammate a short distance from herself.

"Sasuke-kun's awake!" she yelled, so that her conscious teammate would take notice. The jinchuriki stopped moving immediately.

The Uchiha's seal had changed, it seemed, spreading black fire-like markings throughout his body. Sakura wanted to help him up and check if he was okay, but kept Anko's information in mind. He could very well be crazy right now.

In fact, Sakura could feel something very off about him, as he started to stand up. "Sasuke-kun, are you feeling right?" she asked.

"Heh. Heh heh." Sasuke sounded very...odd. Not a good sign. He seemed to be looking around. "I...I feel _amazing._" he said. That tone of voice didn't promise anything good.

Then, he charged at her.

Only to be picked up by a gigantic, clawed hand, and brought before the giant face of her teammate, which was turned slightly back to see the two's strange conversation.

Sasuke was now fuming as he flailed in the air, suspended by two clawed fingers. "Let me go! I've got power now! I could take on Itachi! I could take on _you!_"

Her larger teammate didn't look impressed.

After a few minutes, he seemed to finally calm down, the seal retreating back to the initial three points. "Wh-what the hell just happened?"

"**You tried to rush Sakura. I picked you up. You tried to rush me, but didn't have any luck, since I was kind of holding you like this.**" Sasuke-kun had an interesting expression. "**That seal thing from Orochimaru messed with your head. You're feeling normal now, right?**"

"Yeah," the boy answered. "Tired, though. Put me down again, would you?" The jinchuriki put him back next to Sakura, where he collapsed. "So, Orochimaru gave me a seal that makes me stronger, but causes me to mindlessly pick fights with whoever is nearby, whether teammates or people I can't possibly win against. Don't think I'm too interested in his offer right now."

"The proctor said someone should be around to help with that seal when we finally get to the tower," Sakura explained. "And...don't worry about attacking me, Sasuke-kun. You weren't in your right mind."

"...Even so, I'm sorry," Sasuke said. "So, I guess you have the scrolls?" he asked, pointing to the two different scrolls Sakura had on the ground, er, fur beside her.

"**Yes. I got that from a team of Suna genin,**" answered the jinchuriki for her.

"Now, we're just heading to the tower to finish the exam," explained Sakura.

[Tower]

At the tower, they opened both the scrolls, summoning Iruka-sensei.

"Congratulations, I knew you c-could do it," said the retired chunin, looking a bit nervously out the window past the two genin. Just outside was a gigantic, slitted eye. "Now, you just w-wait for a few days before time on the exam runs out."

After the jittery chunin left, leaving the jinchuriki looking again somewhat ashamed, someone else arrived at their room. The ANBU that had been shadowing them on their missions.

"So, I've got a jinchuriki to revert, I'm told," he stated, opening the window.

While waiting for the jinchuriki's reversion, Team 7's jounin sensei arrived, congratulating them, and then bringing Sasuke out of the room to deal with the Cursed Seal of Heaven, as it was apparently called.

In time, the blond was back to his normal form, and could enter the tower and join his teammates properly. In more time, the raven-haired Uchiha was mostly back to normal, though apparently the "Evil Sealing Method" Kakashi had used depended on his own willpower, and it wasn't going to keep the seal dormant forever.

Over the next few days, other teams arrived, including Team 10 with Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, the Suna team the blond had gotten scrolls from, Lee's team (where the blond discovered that their sensei, Might Guy, did not, in fact, have wings), and one team from Ame, though not the one Team 7 had fought a member of before.

They also heard second hand that Team 8 had forfeited from the exam. It sounded like they had lost their scroll to an Ame team, having been unable to fight back effectively in part due to an injury Kiba had sustained because of "a sudden, massive blast of wind".

[Arena]

The Hokage explained at the end of the five day exam that the exercise was intended as a substitute for war. Finally, the proctor for the third and final exam, to take place in a month, was introduced. It was a man by the name of Hayate Gekko, who had a persistent cough and bags under his eyes.

The blond's negative emotion sensing was still amiss, but...he could sometimes see it in his face. This man, Hayate, had something against him. Something _strong_, if a skilled special jounin was unable to fully hide it.

The man then announced that there would have to be an elimination round to reduce the number of participants for the final, public event.

"We have" (Cough.) "fifteen genin from five teams here; we've got to reduce that number a bit. As such, we're going to give five of you a bye, and the remaining" (Cough.) "ten of you will fight one on one in a short preliminary to cut down your numbers. Now, before we begin, do we have anyone that would like to bow out now? If enough of you do, we can cut out this whole phase entirely." The jinchuriki from Konoha looked around at his team. From here on out, they didn't have to continue as a team, so they could leave now, if they were uncertain. But, it looked like they were going to see this through. It didn't look like any other genin was going to forfeit yet, either.

So, the preliminary exam began.

The screen in the arena cycled through names randomly, stopping on two. "First match: Shigure of Ame versus" (Cough.) "Tenten of Konoha," called out the proctor.

The two participants, one the kunoichi with brown hair done in buns from Lee's team, and the other a large genin from Ame with short brown hair, scars across his right eye and a dark cape, stayed in the arena, while the rest present moved up to the viewing areas to either side.

As the proctor started the fight, Tenten threw a brace of shuriken straight forward, plus a few to either side. Shigure had started moving straight sideways, but turned it into a side jump after seeing the flying stars, managing to get himself over the angled trajectory of the side weapons.

He brought out one of his five umbrellas and spun it in his hands, sending out a shower of senbon toward the kunoichi, who started moving and continued to do so as the steady stream of needles adjusted toward her.

She wasn't completely on the defensive, however, as she threw more shuriken and several kunai out at the Ame shinobi. He deflected several by pointing the spinning umbrella at her for a moment, causing the weapons to ricochet off. "Metal lining," he said with a smug grin. "Makes a good shield when spun, and protects from misfires."

So, this genin had a solid attack with and a solid defense against weapons. The blond jinchuriki didn't see this going well for his fellow Konoha ninja.

But, while he defended with the umbrella, he wasn't attacking with it, and Tenten was faster. Furthermore, he was a big target, and the umbrella didn't cover him completely.

Tenten ran quickly around him, probably to catch him off guard with a close-range kunai attack, but Shigure turned and brought down the handle of his umbrella, on which the blond saw the glint of a hidden metal blade, narrowly missing her. She jumped back in frustration, throwing more shuriken.

Shigure deflected them again with one hand while using the other to pull another umbrella from his back, which he threw up into the air. It spun and started shooting senbon after Shigure made a one-handed sign. Now, he could combine offense and defense.

Tenten had a small smile on her face, despite her predicament, and the jinchuriki wasn't entirely sure why. She boldly threw a wider spread of weapons, taking a few senbon she couldn't quite dodge, but a few of her own blades caught her opponent.

Still, though, it looked pretty evenly matched.

"Time to end this!" shouted Tenten, quickly taking out some scrolls and placing them the ground.

"Time to finish you off!" shouted Shigure, throwing three umbrellas up into the air where the other still spun, lazily floating back down, but having ceased launching for the moment.

"_Rising Twin Dragons!_" Tenten jumped up into the air through a spiral of unrolled scrolls and made several hand signs.

"_Ninja Art: Senbon Rainstorm!_" Shigure remained on the ground, making several hand signs of his own.

What happened next was a cacophonous clatter of metal weaponry hitting the floor, the walls, other metal weaponry, clothing, and, rarely, flesh, launched by a pair of scrolls and a quartet of umbrellas. As Tenten landed again, neither combatant looked very healthy, but both seemed lively and ready to fight on.

Shigure, on his side, had dug out his fifth and final remaining umbrella and used it to defend against the worst of Tenten's attack while his own umbrellas attacked.

Tenten, on her side, had taken several more kunai of her own and fanned them out in front of her face for protection, while her body, where clothed, was relatively unharmed. "Low profile metal lining," she explained with a smug grin to match Shigure's own when he had explained the defenses of his own umbrellas.

"Nice, nice!" Shigure said, grinning himself.

Tenten's grin widened further. "But not as nice as _this!_" she exclaimed, twitching a finger. Suddenly, about half the metal littered along the floor moved, connected to the kunoichi by thin wires.

Shigure looked around, seeing all of his kunoichi opponent's most recent weapons suddenly pointed right at him. "Oh! Beautiful!" he said, surprisingly cool about having an appreciable portion of an armory aimed at him. "Uh, proctor? I forfeit." He _did_ seem to know when he was beaten, though.

"Winner by forfeit: Tenten of Konoha," he announced.

At that point, the two combatants collapsed where they stood, careful not to land on anything sharp, exhausted and bloodied from the fight.

But, it turned out, not completely out of breath.

"So...doing anything later?"

"We could be."

After a short time, the weapon nuts that had managed to find each other in the world were led away for their surprisingly minor treatment by the medics, Konoha's newest weapon cache was converted back into an arena, and the screen went through a series of names again.

"Second match: Shikamaru Nara of Konoha versus Naruto. Uzumaki. Of Konoha." The blond noted the minor enunciation difference on the second of the two names. What had he done to this person? Was it because of the Nine-Tails?

The former of the two names looked at proctor, at the screen, at his blond opponent, and then back at the proctor, all with the same unamused expression. "Yeah, I forfeit. _Far_ too troublesome."

"Winner by forfeit: Naruto. Uzumaki. Of Konoha." Again with the tone of voice.

The screen went through names again, landing on... "Match three:" (Cough.) "Rock Lee of Konoha versus Baiu of Ame." The two indicated genin quickly jumped down to the arena floor.

The straw-hatted Ame genin, foregoing the umbrellas used by his much larger teammate despite having them available, started by rapidly going through hand signs. "_Water Style: Water Bahhh my face!_" That may not have been the real name of the technique. Lee had darted across the arena in a split second and punched him in the face, and proceeded to deliver punches and kicks until his unfortunate opponent fell unconsciously to the ground. Baiu hadn't gotten a real attack off the entire match.

"Winner by knockout: Rock Lee of Konoha."

As Baiu was taken away by a medic, the screen rotated rapidly through names again. "Match four: Choji Akimichi of Konoha versus Choji" (Cough.) "Akimichi?" Apparently, the screen wasn't quite set up properly. In a moment, it rotated through names again. "Match four again:" (Cough.) "Choji Akimichi of Konoha versus Midare of Ame."

The tough Akimichi and his goggle-wearing Ame opponent headed to the ring.

"Well, hope you're ready to fight," said the Ame genin amicably.

"Sure am!" the boy responded cheerfully. "There's a nice reward for me if I get through to the finals!"

"You can do it, Choji!" cheered Shikamaru from the stands. That was about as much energy as he'd shown in days, the blond noted. He also noticed another light-haired genin, Choji's other teammate, Ino, twitching slightly. It seemed she was thinking about saying something, but she eventually decided to just cheer like her teammate.

The fight was on. The Akimichi quickly used a jutsu to turn himself into a large ball shape, and rolled toward his opponent at surprising speed. Midare jumped up with a yelp, taking out an umbrella. When Choji started rolling quickly back toward him, Midare opened the umbrella and did a discrete sign with his other hand, causing the umbrella to let out a small burst of air.

This slowed the Ame ninja's descent, causing the Konoha ninja to roll right under him. Apparently having expected to catch his opponent on the descent, Choji wasn't able to stop in time to avoid embedding into a wall.

Before his opponent could either free himself or shrink back down to get out, the Ame genin landed and started launching senbon from his umbrella. While not as accurate or effective with them as his teammate, he had a much easier target to hit.

That said, they didn't seem to be doing an awful lot. "Ow ow ow ow ow!" Well, it seemed to cause at least some pain for the portly genin, anyway. Still, the senbon weren't actually getting through the Akimichi technique.

Seeing he was wasting has weaponry, the Ame genin ceased his assault and waited. While in ball shape, Choji was having no luck getting out of the wall. Eventually, he gave up and cancelled his jutsu, falling out of the wall and onto the floor.

His opponent must've seen a chance, because he ran up and extended a hidden blade from the handle of his umbrella, which he put up by the Akimichi's neck. "Think it's my win. Neat trick, though."

"Yeah, but it didn't work," responded Choji dejectedly. "I forfeit."

"Winner by forfeit: Midare of Ame," announced Hayate. The screen began to change again for the final fight. "Okay, last match of the preliminary." (Cough.) "Match five: Sakura Haruno of Konoha versus Temari of Suna."

[Arena]

Temari wasn't worried about the upcoming fight as she jumped down to meet her opponent from Leaf. Some pink-haired tart of a kunoichi, and most definitely _not_ that blond jinchuriki.

This little girl looked pretty pathetic. Temari suspected she only got here riding on the backs of her teammates. The Suna kunoichi, having forgotten who Sakura had arrived to the first exam with a few days ago due to the events since then, wasn't aware of how much that suspicion was both figuratively wrong and literally right.

At any rate, she wouldn't be killing her, not after what she'd been told a few days ago in the forest. Still, she'd be certain to make a fool and/or example of the flower girl; she had some frustration to work off.

The match began, and the opponent threw a shuriken toward her. Temari simply opened her fan up to one moon and swung. The shuriken were deflected, and the blast of wind continued forward, knocking the kunoichi back against the wall, face sideways. "You're a disgrace, you know," Temari said.

The bruised kunoichi started getting back to her feet again, attempting to move to the side, but Temari wasn't having any of it. Another swing of the fan, another blast of wind, and the kunoichi was against the wall again. "A useless little girl that plays at being a kunoichi."

The banged-up kunoichi tried to right herself again, and started running through some hand seals. She appeared to get through two and was starting on a third when Temari brought her fan to bear once again, the wind buffeting the Leaf kunoichi against the wall a third time. "As soon as you run into a _real_ kunoichi, the difference is night and day."

The battered kunoichi was barely moving, starting to slowly right herself. Temari decided to let her try a moment. The pink-haired girl (it had to be dyed, Temari swore) feebly took out a kunai and chucked it, mostly in Temari's direction. She didn't even bother to deflect it with her battle fan this time; it was hilariously off course, and landed near Temari's feet with a "tang" sound. This Sakura girl was at her limit.

From what she heard next, the proctor seemed to agree with her, even though the beaten-up flower girl seemed to be trying to stand up the rest of the way. "Winner: Temari of Suna."

Temari couldn't resist one last snide remark. "And that's how it goes. Try again some other exam, after you've learned how to be a ninja instead of a decoration," she said with a smirk. She then turned around and jumped back up to where her team was waiting.

When she arrived, though, their expressions seemed...off. Kankuro looked confused. Their sensei, Baki, looked...ashamed. Gaara looked, well, like Gaara. Epiphany or not, he wasn't one to be particularly emotive.

"Winner by forfeit: Sakura Haruno of Konoha."

Temari turned around so fast that she could well have created another burst of wind, if her fan was out. "_WHAT!?_"

"You left the ring of your own volition, before the winner had" (Cough.) "been called, and then stayed there," explained the proctor matter-of-factly.

Temari was slack-jawed, but tried to speak anyway. "Wuh...you _called_ my victory!"

"I did no such thing," said the proctor with a frown, before coughing again.

"But...you _did!_ I _heard_..." Temari stopped. She looked at her opponent. Still bruised, banged-up, battered, and beaten-up, but looking _smug as all hell._ What did...

Genjutsu. An auditory genjutsu. The proctor hadn't announced Temari's victory; that girl's genjutsu had.

Gripping the railing to the point it began to deform, she thought of another alliterative descriptor for her opponent. "_You_ _**BI**__**-**_"


	21. A Small Loose End

A Small Loose End

[Tower, Previously]

While waiting for the end of the second phase of the exam, Sakura Haruno had a bunch of time to herself. Time to reflect on what had happened.

The exam had been...eventful, to say the least. It had started out fairly well. The first phase was quite difficult, but she managed to get through, and Sasuke-kun had managed to get answers to her less exam-ready teammate. It had turned out not to be that important, though; just a test of information gathering and of guts.

The second part was where it got strange. After that first bit of wind, she'd been thrown into a fight with a god-damned Sannin. Her genjutsu (Kakashi liked to refer to it as "False Soundings", but she suspected that wasn't the real name, just a pun on "False Surroundings") had barely worked on him, but she was surprised that it had apparently done at least something.

Two hand signs, a certain sound near the intended targets, and she could make them hear something of her own imagination, slightly variable among the various targets, such as its audible direction. It was small, simple, and really obscure. Kakashi-sensei had mentioned picking it up from someone in the Third Shinobi War and never having seen or heard of it since. He had only thought of it when she had asked him specifically about genjutsu that were subtle and obscure, and she had decided to try and pick it up right away.

At first glance, it didn't seem that special, but with a bit of imagination, it was basically "Genjutsu: Free Flinch". That it had even worked _at all_ on Orochimaru was a testament to how effective it could be. Maybe she'd be able to come up with other uses later...?

Despite that, it hadn't actually helped against the Sannin in any significant way. Seeing him retreat and seeing her transformed teammate arriving shortly thereafter had been relief she could hardly say she knew before.

She wondered at that. When, exactly, had she started thinking of her teammate's terrifying tailed beast form as something that brought hope and relief? Well, when her _real_ enemies retreated on the sight of him, he couldn't be _all_ bad.

Orochimaru, though, he'd been ready for him. He'd been aware of what her teammate was, and had specifically separated him from the group. In fact, a bunch of people seemed aware of who he was.

Dammit. She just couldn't get away from that. Had her mercy toward an innocent civilian really done that much damage?

In her thoughts, she vaguely noted Kakashi-sensei wandering around near the room. Her other teammates were elsewhere, so it was just the two of them. "Something amiss, Sakura?" Apparently, he noticed her noticing him. She swore, even with Sharingan Kakashi's famous eye covered, he saw way too much. _**Cha! Has he got a Sharingan in the back of his head!?**_

"Just thinking about the exam so far," she answered nonchalantly.

"Well, just remember, I'm your sensei, and I'm here to help you," he said cheerfully. "Being a ninja is more than just learning jutsu and tactics. There's a bunch of psychological stuff as well. You know that."

It's like he knew something was eating her. But...

"Sensei," she began, "the last mission, it's... Something about it's still bothering me."

"Oh?"

She looked around a moment. "Umm... Make sure we're not going to be overheard, please." Her sensei looked around outside and closed the door. He looked out the window, closed it. He checked behind several things on walls, under the furniture, and several other places Sakura wouldn't have thought of, including checking for loose floorboards. "Uh... Kakashi-sensei?" By the time he finished, he had to check outside again to make sure nobody had shown up in the mean time, and he left a shadow clone there.

"Can never be too careful," he explained with a smile conveyed by his inexplicably expressive visible eye. "So, what's up?"

"Well..." She steeled herself. She may very well be putting herself in very poor standing with what she was about to say. "Amaru...she knew who it was."

"I know," Kakashi answered.

"Wha... Of course." She shouldn't be surprised. She really shouldn't. "I'm sorry, sensei. I just... I thought...I thought I might have to...to _kill_ her. She never did anything wrong; nothing there was her fault, she didn't deserve it."

"You're worried that she's the source of the leak, then?" Kakashi inquired. She just nodded, unable to look him in the eye. "Well, don't worry. I took care of that possible leak after you left to find your teammate."

She suddenly looked straight at her sensei in horror. "You. Did...did-id-did you..." Language was suddenly a very difficult concept. "Did. Did you k-kill-"

"_No,_" he said emphatically. Sakura sighed in relief, feeling her heart rate slowing back down to a normal level. "I hypnotized her, with this," he said, indicating the location of his left eye. The Sharingan's ability, then, unless he had somehow hypnotized a civilian with his headband. Sakura did suppose that that might be one of his thousand jutsu, though.

He went on to explain a bit more. "Specifically, I couldn't just make her forget about the...well, the big event there. Too important in her mind, and too many others saw and knew about it.

"I just made her forget about that burst on the way in. Unless someone specifically reminds her of that, (and by the way, nobody in the village seemed to feel it, I checked after we arrived), then she won't remember, and she'll not be able to make that connection. So, you're off the hook on this."

While this left the question of where the leak had actually come from open, it helped close off one of Sakura's worries.

"Though, while we're on the subject, I should say this: don't lie to me," he said seriously. "I let you off the hook back then, because frankly, you didn't need to be overwhelmed. I'm sorry for not thinking to bring it up myself later, though; that's on me."

With that, nothing left to do but wait for the end of the exam. At least she could banish one more major worry from her thoughts. Now she could reflect on other things, like riding on the back of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox with Sasuke-kun. _**Cha! Ino-pig's got **_**nothing**_** on that!**_


	22. A Big Intermission

A Big Intermission

[Konoha]

A certain jinchuriki had someone to talk to. Someone he _needed_ to talk to. He had made this trip into town specifically for this, to make his appeal personally, going through all the trouble it entailed for him to be brought into Konoha proper.

It was a departure from what had become his usual schedule of training with Tenzo-sensei with breaks for rest or mediocre-tasting instant food he got lately. Mediocre-tasting food was about all they could really inflict on him as punishment for murdering a civilian, it seemed, seeing as he was basically not confineable in any meaningful way, he was already unable to go anywhere he might spend any money, thereby spoiling the point of reducing his payment, and he was already essentially kept out of the place he wished to return to for other circumstances.

Barring rather particular circumstances, either request from someone high up in Konoha or something pressing to the future of Konoha, his heading into Konoha wasn't something that happened. For this particular instance, though, it was considered one of the latter circumstances.

Seeing the person he needed finally arriving at the designated meeting point in an open park, he bowed down low to plead his case. "_Please_ don't just surrender. I need to have an actual fight in the finals."

"I-it's clear; it is n-not my fate to become a chunin yet," responded the Hyuga. Even if he hadn't have stuttered, the jinchuriki could sense the nervousness; whatever had happened to his sensing, he could usually at least sense somewhat for people he was in close proximity to, and Neji Hyuga was quite nervous.

"I won't use the fox form to fight you; I'd _never_ use it against a Konoha ninja. I just need an actual match, or this entire thing is for nothing."

"Why not f-fight one of your teammates? Won't they both be in the finals?" he asked.

"Yeah, _eventually._ After they're both tired out from multiple matches, and clearly considered about to lose, probably giving me no real chance to show anything. And assuming they don't lose before that anyway."

The exact schedule of fights was determined after the preliminaries were fought, to take place a month from then in a specific arena inside Konoha. The jinchuriki recalled the specific schedule:

"Naruto Uzumaki versus Neji Hyuga"

"Kankuro versus Tenten"

"Rock Lee versus Sakura Haruno"

"Sasuke Uchiha versus Gaara"

"Ino Yamanaka versus Midare"

Because of the chosen matches, there was a very real possibility of him achieving a clean sweep against a combination of immediate forfeits and/or clearly exhausted foes who couldn't put up a fight. This would accomplish nothing whatsoever, give no evidence of his deserving a promotion, nor any proof that he was a stable jinchuriki, safe for Konoha and the Land of Fire to harbor, and safe to come back into Konoha to stay.

He would first be up against Neji, then either Kankuro (one of the Suna ninja that recognized him and was terrified) or Tenten (one of the Konoha ninja that recognized him and was terrified), and then up against the winner of the other block, who would have at the very least fought two fights already, three if it wasn't Lee or Sakura. Also, of those in the block, Ino and probably Gaara were also afraid of him, and may very well just surrender as well.

Even if he wanted to try and just convince members of the other blocks not to just surrender to him, several of them who were quite capable of a victory in their earlier matches weren't even in Konoha to ask.

"Please. I need this; _Konoha_ needs this," he said, thinking of the real reason for his placement in the exam in the first place. "I won't use the fox form, and you _know_ I can't use real jutsu. I'm basically stuck with hand-to-hand and weapons; very fightable."

"...I'll consider it," Neji said finally. "It's your fate as a monster" (The jinchuriki twitched, but Neji kept talking.) "to obliterate all your foes, but...if I'm not a foe, just someone doing a favor for you, it may work..."

"_Thank you._"

[Outside Konoha]

A curious scent in the air, just before the rainfall. A certain jinchuriki could smell it, but pretended not to. He'd smelled it before, more than once. It wasn't supposed to be here. It couldn't be real; it had no reason be be here.

So, he just ignored it and kept on at his training, dodging Tenzo-sensei's strikes and throwing his own, holding back the fox's chakra when he took a hit. Having finally received word that he'd secured an opponent to fight, he had to practice, but his limited repertoire of either taijutsu or weaponry against a skilled taijutsu expert didn't give him much confidence.

No ninjutsu like Sasuke, no genjutsu like Sakura, no particularly amazing weapon skill like some of the fighters in the preliminary, no particular stealth that he could practice in an open field like the arena for the finals, and taijutsu that was mostly just an overcharged variant of the academy's standard. Even his sensing was still iffy, vanishing and returning as it was.

But, he had what he had. He'd focus on refining what he could use, figuring out how to use the relative charge of tailed beast chakra in his system without nudging that which remained in the seal.

Maybe he could base something on what he had done when trying (and failing) to climb trees. Focusing his chakra on his hands instead of his feet, he may be able to inflict damage that way, above and beyond just charging his punches' raw strength. Maybe with some practice with that method, he could have win, show that he could be an effective ninja _without_ being a danger, and through the fight show that he was _not_ an unstable monster.

And maybe, if he kept training long enough, the rain would drown out the scent that shouldn't be there, that wasn't there, and his conscience would let him stop thinking about the young medic whose sensei he murdered.

[Konoha]

Later during the month, he had been requested to meet someone else in Konoha. This time, the circumstance was from a higher-up's request.

Eventually, he had arrived at the destination on a hill, hidden somewhat by trees, to find the seal master Jiraiya-sama, sitting behind some bushes with a spyglass.

The elder ninja regarded the blond. "Hey, brat. I heard you made it to the finals," he said with a grin.

"I did," the blond admitted with a momentary faint grin. "Not sure how much of it was myself, though, really."

"Eh, ninja use every advantage we get. You've got a pretty vicious one; may as well take advantage of the positive things you get from it."

"Fair enough," the jinchuriki admitted. "Anyway, you wanted to meet with me here for something?"

"Sure did! But, before we do, I want you to see something quick." Jiraiya motioned for him to approach. When he did, Jiraiya put the spyglass up to his eye, to show him whatever it was.

It turned out to be a view of bunch of women without clothing, at a bathhouse.

"Umm, what's this about?" he asked uncertainly, lowering the spyglass and looking back at the seal master.

Jiraiya looked surprised, and slightly worried. "N-nothing?" Then, he seemed to compose himself. "It's okay, it's okay, I came prepared, just in case of this." He reached into his shirt and pulled out a scroll marked "Danger". Unrolling it, he put a hand on it and quickly unsealed what appeared to be a magazine. "It's...not my thing, but if it's what you're into, that's okay with me," he said, offering the magazine to him.

Inside, there were several pictures of men without clothing.

"Uh, what?" The jinchuriki began to realize that Jiraiya was kind of weird. He put the magazine back down. After a moment of minor nervous trembling, Jiraiya took it and sealed it back in the same scroll it came from. The blond could feel the man's nervousness and embarrassment, having regained his sensing somewhat since the preliminaries, though it occasionally faded from time to time.

"O-okay, maybe you're just a late bloomer, that's alright. Or maybe you just won't be interested. ...I guess that'll be okay, too. I'll get over it," Jiraiya continued.

Whatever was going on, it was lost on the blond. "So...?" the jinchuriki began expectantly, hoping to get back to the actual topic of this meeting.

"R-right," Jiraiya said suddenly, returning to a more normal expression. "I've got some news, some good, some, eh, bad, I guess. Good news first, though." The jinchuriki leaned in expectantly.

"I've got some progress and improving/fixing your seal!" he announced happily.

"That's...that's wonderful news!" responded the jinchuriki. A fix! Something to make him stable, help him stay human, let him go home again!

The seal master elaborated. "I used your blood, but not directly, I mean. I've got clearance to talk about this, at least, so let me explain that your name 'Uzumaki' isn't just to honor some fallen ninja. Specifically, it's because you're related to a clan by the same name, who once lived on an island to the west, the Land of Whirlpools, and the village of Uzushio."

A...a clan? The Uzumaki clan, it existed? Wait..."once lived"?

"Sorry, brat, the village was destroyed long ago, and the clan's all but extinct," he explained sorrowfully, dashing some of the jinchuriki's hopes. "The thing is, the Uzumaki were seal masters of world renown. I thought some of that knowledge might remain locked away hidden in Uzushio's ruins, behind some gates covered in what're called 'blood seals'. Only the blood of an Uzumaki would allow someone through, such as the sample I took from you back when I first made that new seal.

"Thing is, I hit some real paydirt there. Oh, and, uh, sorry for plundering your family legacy," he said sheepishly. "I've got some scrolls I'm still studying, along with some more to still uncover over there, but I think there will be a way to improve the original seal, maybe even expand it. If it works, you could stuff the whole fox in the base seals, the ones that _are_ combat hard. You might even be able to revert yourself without your shadow!"

He could hardly contain his excitement. It was there. A real breakthrough, a solution to the problem, a way to keep the fox out of his life!

"Now, the kinda bad news, before you get too distracted," he began again. "There's a group called 'Akatsuki' out there. They're looking to hunt down jinchuriki, like you, and they consist entirely of a group of S-rank missing nin."

"That's...only _kinda_ bad news?" the jinchuriki asked incredulously.

Jiraiya stared at him. "You're absurdly overpowered, brat. I don't think they'll give you that much trouble when or if they come for you, and everyone you have any kind of emotional bond to lives in the single strongest shinobi village in the world. Due diligence is due, sure, but don't let it keep you up at night."

Then the blond remembered a detail that had been nagging him earlier in the conversation. "You said before, you said that I'm related to the Uzumaki clan, and that's where I got the name," he said seriously. "How do you know? Do you know about one of my parents?"

Jiraiya looked surprised a moment, then contemplative. "I..._think_ I've got clearance for this, brat. Not like I can hide it now, though. Let me tell you about a woman named Kushina Uzumaki..."

[Konoha, during the month]

Again, after doing so countless times, Sakura Haruno wondered why in the world she was going through with this. Why she hadn't surrendered back when the preliminary started. Back when she saw she was facing a tough-looking kunoichi. Back when she felt her spine in massive pain partway through the fight.

For the latter two, at least, she had an excuse. The Suna kunoichi's words hit too close to home. Sakura had been trying her hardest in training and on missions to get beyond just leeching a portion of the mission pay and incrementing the team size to the appropriate number. She was _proud_ of what she'd managed to accomplish, dammit, and that Temari person was determined to wreck her, in body and in pride.

After that, she couldn't just back down, no matter how much her body seemed to want to just shut down after hitting the wall the first time. So, she moved, in excruciating pain, and put together her ruse, against the protests of her muscles, bones, and nerve endings.

Her pride got the last laugh in the disagreement with Temari, but her body seemed to have gotten the last laugh in the disagreement with her pride. Trying to move and continue the match with the spinal injury had exacerbated it. While she had technically won, in a way that would _never_ work again and had almost certainly revealed exactly how her genjutsu worked to the onlookers, such as her opponent in the finals, she had then spent the next two weeks in a hospital instead of getting the physical training she needed, absolutely _needed_, to face off against that taijutsu berserker that awaited her.

Kakashi _had_ managed to call a favor in to get her some help, though, insofar as it was possible. She had a visiting sensei of sorts. Kurenai Yuhi was her name, the jounin sensei for Team 8 which hadn't cleared the second exam. She had volunteered some of her free time to give her a little bit of genjutsu training while she was stuck, supplemented somewhat by a shadow clone of Kakashi-sensei himself.

It was either genjutsu or medicine she could study with her limited physical exertion allowances, and medicine wasn't going to win the coming fight. Since genjutsu could be accomplished mostly with just some hand signs, of which Kurenai could teach her a few one-handed variants to reduce the strain of moving arms around, and the rest was mental effort and relatively little chakra flow, she was able to make some surprising progress.

When she could finally move again, she did what she could to get back into at least her previous shape, and then to try and build upon it, all coached by Kakashi-sensei, or maybe a shadow clone of his. But, still, there was no chance of success in a physical fight. From what she'd learned and heard from Kakashi-sensei, Rock Lee was an absolute juggernaut of taijutsu for a genin, and she had as much chance of beating him via purely or primarily physical means as she had of beating Temari in a rematch without genjutsu.

Kakashi had surprised her a little with the detail on this guy, actually. Malformed chakra coils prevented him from using ninjutsu or genjutsu, but he had studied the "Strong Fist" style from Konoha's greatest taijutsu expert for more than a year (as well as apparently picking up the man's quirks, which sort of explained how weird the boy had seemed when she met him at the start of the exams). Kakashi had plenty of more specific details, such as Lee _possibly_ being able to open inner chakra gates, if Might Guy had been "a horribly irresponsible sensei", making the boy even _more_ absurdly fast and strong.

Long story short, she was hideously outmatched. Hearing all of this from Kakashi was kind of like knowing the exact number of teeth in a tiger's mouth and the minimum dimension of each one's tip when it was lunging forth to bite through your neck.

The physical training she was doing in the time she had _should_ let her survive the first few moments, but she'd need to out-think him, figure out a way to use the genjutsu abilities she'd picked up to neutralise his force, or even somehow turn it against him. And she'd need something a _lot_ better than a fake victory declaration, now that she was pegged as and, by chance, pigeon-holed into the role of a genjutsu user.

[Konoha, during the month]

Sasuke had been fortunate to be in the third of the genin pool to get a bye, so no injuries were hindering him now. Even that seal from the Sannin was fairly well contained, though he was informed he couldn't count on the surrounding counterseal forever. In time, he'd have to deal with bits of influence and bouts of pain, apparently like the proctor Anko dealt with.

But, concerns about the seal were fairly far off right now. Right now, he had a very local, very specific concern. This particular concern was staring at a rock, instead of helping him with a somewhat less local, somewhat more enigmatic concern.

"Kakashi-sensei," he said, hoping to gain the jounin's attention.

"Yo," his sensei responded, raising an arm.

"Train me."

"Maa, so needy."

"I'm fighting against an opponent we barely know anything about in a little under a month, and I need to be ready."

Kakashi sighed. "Fine, fine..." Sasuke swore that if he trained on this man's voluntary schedule, he'd show up late to the finals.

They discussed what they knew about the strange genin known as Gaara. That didn't amount to much, though. He used sand, and could control it via some unknown ninjutsu, or so he heard from his jinchuriki teammate. Also heard second-hand, he had some apparent psychosis. Or possibly psychoses.

The strangest detail, though, was one offhand remark the jinchuriki made about his mental state, that he seemed to have two sources of negative emotions. That gave Sasuke pause. Split personalities? One malevolent and uncaring, one... more malevolent and even less caring? Well, skilled shinobi could get away oddities, present company giving an excellent example.

Then, Kakashi brought out some other information. A bingo book, specifically a recent one from Iwa, smuggled out of the Land of Earth. Konoha's would be less likely to have anything about a regular shinobi of Suna, being allied with the village. But here, he saw an entry.

In particular, in mentioned Gaara of the Sand, or the Sand Waterfall, or the Sandfall, for all variations of the title. He was estimated at B-rank to low A-rank. For a genin, especially one as young as Gaara had seemed to look, that was pretty absurd. The entry corroborated what his teammate had said: sand control via unknown ninjutsu. It also expanded on it a bit, mentioning that it seemed to work as a "perfect shield" against attacks from every direction. Or, as perfect a shield as something made of sand could be.

Sand was just tiny rocks. It washed away with water, it eventually melted to glass in fire, it blew away with enough wind, and enough lightning would probably melt it like fire. Other than that, something strong enough would likely be able to break through it.

What did he have in the line of those? He had a D-to-C-rank water style jutsu for gathering up water chakra and expelling it in a wide spray from his mouth, which might be useful. He had half an F-rank water jutsu in which he gathered up water chakra and got punched in the face. He supposed it was funny to watch and he didn't regret having captured it, but it was pretty useless. He also had his family's favored Grand Fireball, which..._might_ be up to the task of glassing a sand shield. If he overspent his chakra on it and exhausted himself.

If the defensive side was frustrating, though, the offensive side was scary. Control of sand, in shape and form, could be used to just immediately immobilize him when he was caught, though Gaara didn't sound like the sort to be so kind. Other than that, he could get caught and suffocated. Or he could be crushed by the weight of the sand and force of the control. Or it could just be sent at him fast enough to sandblast the flesh from his bones. Sasuke was okay with not making a chunin this time around if the alternative was getting skeletonized.

Still, the ranking bothered him. Somewhere from B to A was on par with some _jounin_, and this was given to a _genin_. What kind of genin was that strong that young? Some geniuses, maybe; maybe like... He shuddered at the thought, but maybe a prodigy like Itachi. Not _quite_ as insane, though, since his teammates were apparently his family, and they were still alive. Also, he supposed he could add his own teammate among high-ranking genin, but that was kind of cheating, because the blond was a _dammit!_

He shut the bingo book immediately, surprising his sensei. "I have to go to a library," he said, excusing himself.

When he arrived, he found what he was looking for: information on tailed beasts. Not an extraordinarily large amount, but to be fair, they were mysterious, insufficiently explained entities that numbered only nine in total. But, they were all generally considered related to one nation or another by ownership due to various jinchuriki. Suna, he read, historically held Shukaku, the One-Tailed Tanuki, which was considered dangerous like all of them, but especially so in the desert because of its ability to...control the freaking sand.

'Split personality' his _Sharingan_. He was matched against Suna's jinchuriki. There wasn't likely any kind of solid defense he could get besides dodging. He needed something fast and _viciously powerful_ offensively to win quickly if he was going to get through this. If it was to be learned well enough to work in the month he had, it'd have to be something from his affinity, whatever that may be. He'd have to check that and hope Kakashi-sensei had something good available...

[Elsewhere]

A certain snake summoner's plans had taken another small spanner where they ought not to. That a team from Ame, famous for sending many mediocre teams to Chunin exams and having them all fail early on the majority of the time, had gotten a genin through in an exam with _two freaking jinchuriki_ in it, one of which was using the **fully-controlled Nine-Tails**, was just not something he had expected.

Now, it looked very much like his plans for the finals in Konoha would have to be reworked to include keeping himself safe from Hanzo of the Goddamn Salamander (not quite his normal title), of whom Orochimaru did not have fond memories. Looking at it seriously, though, it may not be as bad as he was worried. It was probably a very small delegation from Ame showing up, given how insular the Land of Rain and its village had been and continued to be.

Hanzo didn't have anything specifically against him, at least not in the long term. The man was a ninja's ninja with a military mind, aware of the needs of secrecy. He'd understand not being warned ahead of time, wouldn't take the use of the exam as a way to attack Konoha as a personal offense, and would..._probably_ keep away, focusing just on his own village's needs. If nothing else, he'd be significantly discouraged by the barrier around the most important part of his plan.

The Ame and Land of Rain visitors would also be very much a minority of those present, and they'd be in their own section; Ame's insular nature was particularly helpful here. He could set up a small barrier team to keep them protected and get them evacuated. Orochimaru didn't want to end up in a real conflict against Ame; too many important things in Kusa right next door to them, his connection to which Hanzo might well sniff out, and too many details in the plan for Konoha to risk them getting involved there. Best to try and discourage them respectfully, if spy concerns prevented him from warning them directly.

While he wasn't happy with all the uncertainty involving Ame when it was his neck on the line, he had too much invested in this plan. He had some ways to keep it intact, and he'd be sure to come up with others. Heck, he'd already managed to adapt the plan gracefully to handle the _Nine-Tails_ suddenly defending Konoha. He was actually pretty happy with how that change to the plan turned out; just a change in how certain resources were used, really, to bring the proper trump card against the fox.


	23. A Big Tournament

A Big Tournament

[Chunin Exam Arena, Kage Box]

For one day, at least, Hiruzen Sarutobi thought he could put away some of his concerns. And concerns he had. Besides the standard mission work and paperwork, he had lately been dealing with some of his chunin patrols vanishing north of the village (Hayase and Okei; both skilled shinobi; they'd be missed), inconclusive results from investigations of said vanished chunin patrols, Jiraiya's spy network reports getting fewer and further between as he had his head stuck in a bunch of sealing scrolls, some reports of an unknown shinobi village picking up in the Land of Rice, Suna's unwillingness to mention that they had entered a jinchuriki in the exam, Orochimaru sneaking into Konoha to put a cursed seal on the last loyal Uchiha, Orochimaru being the leader of a hidden village in general, and Jiraiya overstepping the clearance he was given when talking to the village jinchuriki.

He supposed the last one may have been somewhat his own fault. Telling the boy he was part of a clan and then expecting him _not_ to ask how they knew wasn't exactly proper planning. Fair enough, a mistake on his part. He was just a person. "God of Shinobi" was a moniker, not evidence of literal divinity.

As people arrived, he saw the few from Ame and the Land of Rain arrive, including a masked ninja with long, blond hair. When he had made the final formal invitation for the finals, he had expressed that Hanzo would have a space in the Kage box, but that was rejected. Insular villages and all that, Hiruzen supposed, though he was a little disappointed to see the masked ninja just taking a space in the stands with the rest of his countrymen, surrounded by several guards, multiple layers deep.

At least they were fairly close to the Kage box. There weren't many highly skilled ninja from his own era still alive to talk with, and Hiruzen had gotten pretty tired of talking with Danzo.

[Chunin Exam Arena]

In the arena, the genin contestants were arriving, all on time, along with the proctor from the preliminary matches, Hayate Gekko, who still had the faintest scowl whenver he looked at the blond jinchuriki.

Tenten, a kunai in hand, was waving vigorously toward one side of the arena stands near the Kage box. Looking closely, the blond could see a figure there with an umbrella in hand waving equally vigorously back.

Ino had found a different outfit; one that covered her body much more thoroughly. It was still purple, though. The jinchuriki suspected it had been lined with something metal, like Tenten's outfit, considering who her opponent was. He also noted that she seemed to have a couple small metal shields strapped to her arms. Yes, she had prepared to fight someone that focused on shooting senbon all over.

Sasuke looked pretty much unchanged. He occasionally snuck a nervous glance toward Gaara.

Sakura looked pretty much unchanged. She occasionally snuck a nervous glance toward Lee.

Rock Lee looked pretty much unchanged. He occasionally snuck a blushing glance toward Sakura.

The two Suna genin were somewhat off from the rest. Kankuro was looking with concern toward himself and Gaara, but didn't seem to notice his own opponent Tenten. Gaara was infrequently look toward the blond, but was doing a better job at appearing uninterested than the cat-suited boy. Apparently, the redhead was a jinchuriki like him. When this was done, the blond really wanted to talk with his Suna counterpart.

Meanwhile, Midare was off on his own, not really looking very different from a month ago, aside from what appeared to be a metal helmet of some form under his straw hat, with a full visor over his eyes instead of the disconnected goggles from before. Something to try and deal with Yamanaka mind jutsu, maybe?

Lastly, his own opponent, Neji Hyuga, was doing his best to look neutral, but occasional twitches betrayed what he felt. When he careful demeanor faltered momentarily, the blond spotted an expression directed at him that seemed to say "_I _really_ hope you hold up your end of this_".

The arena itself was mostly open space, but a few random rocks were scattered, and a small copse of trees were growing in a corner. By and large, though, not much terrain to use.

Eventually, Hayate called for them to stop fidgeting and pay attention. The exam was starting.

After the announcements, all the genin but himself and Neji left. The remaining two took their positions in the middle of the arena, and the match was on.

Apparently not wanting to wait for the blond to change his mind on how he would do combat, Neji activated his Byakugan, bulging out the veins in his head, and charged, _fast_, catching the jinchuriki off guard. A single blow from the Hyuga's "Gentle Fist" style caught his arm before he could get away.

The faint pulse of chakra, intended to close a chakra point to disable a foe's jutsu, flowed into his arm. He felt the fox's chakra stir slightly differently than normal and heard a faint sizzle.

_Crap._ Gentle Fist blows weren't like normal blows, and would affect the seal differently. And, of course, he had to just discover that _now,_ of all times. He pulled the demonic chakra back tightly as fast as he could.

His being distracted by the blow didn't seem to have led Neji to give further strikes, though. He looked up and saw red, irritated skin on the finger that had touched his chakra point, and the worried expression on Neji's face looking at him.

"Keep going," the blond told him discretely. "It'll hold."

Neji hesitated a moment, but obliged, rushing forth again to strike him. Like all others facing a Hyuga in taijutsu, the blond would have to do his best to _dodge_ the blows.

The speed and strength he had from the fox helped here, but he was still the inferior unarmed specialist, still taking hits he had to inwardly counter as he dodged, and not being able to make many of his own attacks. Even those he made missed. Still, though, each blow he took elicited a sizzle not just from his own seal, but from Neji's striking limb.

But, it wasn't a good trade at this rate. The jinchuriki was actually taking damage from these blows, besides the issue of the fox's chakra getting worked up. The damage was mostly healing, but not completely, and not fast enough. Not having much luck at this range, the blond dodged back and drew a kunai before Neji could close the gap again. But, the Hyuga didn't seem daunted by the drawn metal, expertly grabbing the wrist holding it and going for another chakra-bursting blow with his other.

Uninterested in being held in place to take repeated blows, the blond struggled against the hold, and then started circulating chakra around the wrist, from the few chakra points still open, like he had from his feet when climbing, err, scalding the tree.

That earned him a yelp from his opponent, who jumped back and cradled his pained wrist in his hand. "So, you can actually fight back like this?" Neji questioned.

"Of course," the blond responded. Now he saw his way. Somewhat like the Gentle Fist itself, his blows didn't have to have great muscular power behind them. Unlike the Gentle Fist, his blows didn't need to really even be blows. Contact, at least contact near an unsealed chakra point, was a sufficient attack, if he circulated chakra around that part of the body. He didn't have the skill to fully use those chakra points for jutsu shaping, but he couldn't use jutsu anyway, so what he could do was enough for him.

Now, he was on the defensive, and _Neji_ was the one trying to make distance, keeping him at bay with a few throwing weapons. But, the blond couldn't be evaded forever, and soon he had a chance to strike.

Neji would be able to dodge a blow with the tells it gave and the wind-up required, but he wasn't quite fast enough to dodge a hand just being flicked across him. He could only put up an arm to take the "strike" for him. Where the hand circulating with the mixed chakras brushed across, red lines formed, almost like claw marks.

Neji yelped once again and dodged back a moment. The blond charged forth once again, but his long-haired opponent had a different defensive technique this time. He suddenly spun, generating a rotating dome of blue chakra, which intercepted the blond and shoved him away. As he landed, he heard the hiss of his seal and clamped down on it immediately.

While he did that, Neji charged into close quarters voluntarily again, expertly striking his exposed hand. Once the blond was up, though, he backed away again. "These eyes can see it. When I've sealed one of your chakra points, you can't use your attack with it any more," he stated. "So, victory...is achievable." The last sentence was spoken with what sounded like disbelief.

Still, though, the blond had one hand at least somewhat usable, and much of the rest of his body, if needed. So, he started rushing again, hoping to use what he had while it was available.

As his opponent looked like he was preparing to spin and make that dome again, the jinchuriki paused a moment, not wanting to get thrown around. "Perfect," his opponent stated with a faint grin.

Then, Neji charged at blinding speed, striking him from every angle with highly practiced motions, striking every last chakra point in order to seal it.

_Hold! Don't let it out!_ The jinchuriki frantically pulled the fox's chakra back over and over, doubling the pain of the already painful blows. _Don't let it transform you! Not here! Not now!_

Eventually, the barrage of blows ceased. Somehow, some way, the jinchuriki had staved off a transformation. But, now he was lying on the ground, hardly able to move. While not _as_ bad, he still hadn't shown enough. They still wouldn't let him go home, still wouldn't accept him as not dangerous, not just with this. He was sure of it.

He had to get up. Fight back. He couldn't lie there and fall out already.

"Proctor, he won't be getting up," Neji stated confidently.

"No!" he cried desperately. He'd get up, he just needed a moment more.

"He's still conscious, and clearly wants to keep going," the proctor stated, having heard his plea.

Neji started moving toward him again to take him out of the fight fully. He had one thing he could do, but it was risky.

He'd try and circulate his chakra, despite the blockage, try and overcome it. But, he'd have to be able to pull it back fast. Otherwise, he was almost sure to transform from doing so.

No time left to think on it. Neji was upon him. He flared his chakra past the blockages, and he felt the points opening back up. He could move again, and he quickly got up and tried to pull back the chakra again, before-

Hiss. No, _**NO**_! Opening the points with force had sent too much through and, for a moment, gotten the points stuck _open!_ He couldn't pull back the fox's chakra now!

"_Get back! I can't hold it!_" he yelled frantically. Neither Neji nor Hayate needed to be told twice; each jumped away from him fast, positioning themselves in front of him.

For his part, he had one thing he could do. He put his hands and legs together on the ground, so the fox's would take as little space as possible, and tensed the muscles that would eventually link to the fox's tails, to let them materialize close to him.

And then, it finally happened. With the fox's ears, he heard them yelling, screaming. He had transformed, by accident, in the middle of a massive crowd, seen by all the people he needed to demonstrate his stability to. He had completely failed. _Failed._

He looked down at the arena and relaxed some of his limbs, taking a bit more of his available space. As he looked around he spotted the proctor and his opponent, stunned and quivering.

He let out a sigh. "**Proctor, I forfeit,**" he said simply. He looked around the stands a moment, seeing people trying to run in a panic while the peacekeeping Konoha ninja tried to calm them down and keep them from leaving just yet.

Seeing the part of the stands he had been informed of, he checked around the ground at the fox's feet once more. Then, he made a carefully practiced leap, from the center of the ring at a standing start to over the stands, not even getting close to touching them, and then landing with a muffled thump in an open field of softened earth reserved just outside the arena.

"Wuh...w-winner: Neji Hyuga of K-Konoha," the understandably staggered proctor said, amplified throughout the arena and picked up by the fox's massive ears.

[Chunin Exam Arena]

In time, the crowd managed to settle down from the sudden appearance of the Nine-Tails in the middle of the arena, and the shellshocked Hyuga made his way back out of the arena. Kankuro was still trying to calm down Gaara, who had developed wide eyes, a nervous sweat, and a twitch, and kept looking back in the direction the other jinchuriki had left the arena in.

"N-nice of him to be such a good sport," Midare commented regarding Sasuke's teammate, once he'd stopped shaking like a leaf in the wind.

The next match was coming up. Tenten, the weapon user, vs. Kankuro, the...guy with a hairy coffin. A bit of investigation onto Suna culture identified his outfit and make up or warpaint as identifying of a puppeteer. So, the hairy coffin was probably a puppet.

The fight began, and...wow, Kankuro really sucked. He dodged slowly from Tenten's initial barrage and got pegged in the front with several weapons. He tried to throw some shuriken of his own, but they missed, and the kunoichi followed through with another barrage.

After taking that, he collapsed on his side and forfeited.

The Sharingan revealed more, though. The Kankuro that Temari hit was a disguised puppet, and the real shinobi was wrapped in bandages on its back. So...why had he forfeited? He'd not taken real damage. Had the weapons somehow hit a bad spot on his weapon and caused it to cease functioning?

Sasuke didn't _think_ Suna would send someone that pathetic, but maybe he was just a hanger on to his jinchuriki teammate.

As that fight ended, the defeated Suna nin arrived and went immediately back to trying to calm down Gaara, who Sasuke just realized had gotten even less collected while he was gone. Maybe that was why he gave up so quickly...?

[Chunin Exam Arena]

When Sakura finally arrived in the middle of the arena, she was struggling to keep her wits about her. She had not yet managed to convince herself that actually participating in this fight was a good idea.

_**Cha! I'm more badass than I think! I can at least give this guy a good fight!**_

She had thought long and hard about this fight, but had eventually come up with more than she expected to in terms of advantages to use.

The three jutsu from the academy, first off. They didn't seem too fancy, but they were required for a reason. Each was easy to learn, and though technically supplementary, they were all very useful defenses. Any jounin in Konoha regale you with a story of a time in their career where they would've died if they hadn't known any one of those three.

Substitution, probably the most famous, she had managed to cut down to one sign with two hands, _maybe_ one hand, but that was harder, and she wouldn't stake her life on it if she had a choice. And for either one, she couldn't substitute with things too far or mismatched in size without spending a lot more of her chakra than she was comfortable with, but if she used something nearby and approximately the right size, her perfect chakra control made it very cheap. Clone, also excellent, even if it was weaker compared to some solid cousins of the jutsu based on elements. Two hands and one sign for that jutsu would get her five clones with normal chakra use, or one hand and one sign for three clones, if he other was busy. Transformation, eh, maybe it'd be useful. It was more of an infiltration tool. Still, she could do it in two signs with one hand or one sign with two hands.

Next, her other ninjutsu. Which consisted of exactly one jutsu she'd manage to make work, for some wide definition of 'work'. The body flicker wasn't too high in the hierarchy of jutsu above the academy three, but she could do it. One sign, but she needed both hands, and she needed to hold it a pretty long time in order to complete the jutsu and actually move somewhere. But, if push came to shove, she may have to flicker away from her green-clad opponent.

Next in line, her genjutsu. Her specialty, really, voluntary or not. The transformation and clone jutsu counted among here, as well as arguably the substitution, for its ability to make it seem as if the opponent's attack had struck for a moment, but against an opponent that was using fists, well, her substitution object would definitely feel different.

But for her interesting genjutsu, she had her False Soundings... False Sound... Phantom Sound? Okay, she didn't know the actual name, but her "tang" genjutsu, anyway, at two signs with one hand. She'd also managed to pick up Hell Viewing or Death Mirage (Kakashi-sensei called it the former, Kurenai-sensei called it the latter), which she could do with two signs using two hands, and _theoretically_ with two signs and one hand, but she'd never gotten the latter to work. Also, she had False Surroundings or Optic Delusory (Kakash-sensei the former again, Kurenai-sensei the latter), at three signs with two hands.

For physical tools, she had her standard shuriken and kunai, several of her special "tang" kunai, a few ordinary "tang" bells which could make the sound in contact with plain old dirt, unlike the kunai and two smoke bombs to give her a few moments of reprieve

Oh, and three explosive tags, but she was really reluctant to use those. At the end of the day, Rock Lee was another Konoha Shinobi, and using dangerous explosives on an ally didn't sit well with her.

Finally, finishing up her tools, she had taken a page from Tenten and a page from what at first glance appeared to be a book of some strange cult she'd once read, and had five sizeable storage scrolls full of some other useful defensive tools.

All of this would, maybe, _hopefully,_ let her hold her own in the coming fight... _**Oh, come on! I'm badass, and I know it! Cha!**_

"Sakura-san! I hope we have a wondrously youthful match, and I hope that you do not take it personally if I win!" Lee said, with a smile and a thumbs-up.

Sakura managed a small, lame smile at the gesture. "Uh...m-me, too."

At that, Hayate started the match. Remembering a certain Ame genin who had taken some knuckles to the face at the start of a preliminary match, Sakura started by jumping _immediately_ to the side, narrowly avoiding Lee, who would've otherwise planted a fist in her stomach less than half a second after the start.

As she was jumping, she immediately threw down her first of two smoke bombs, which she had discretely gotten in hand just before the fight started. It was a specialized one, focusing on _immediate_ smoke, rather than necessarily blinding a large area with a little bit of delay.

This gave her the immediate cover she needed to start enacting her plan. First, the scrolls. The ran a hand across her loosely packed set of them and dispersed them around her in a pattern she could remember. Second, one sign with two hands and she had five clones, all of which would mimic her movements and even throw illusory weaponry as she did. Third, two hands and the three signs for False Sur-_**LEE! RUN! SUBSTITUTE!**_

One sign, two hands, cancelling the other jutsu before it applied. Fortunately, one of the seal scrolls had _just_ released its contents, and Sakura substituted with one of her five packed logs. Well, four, after the sound of how her first used one had splintered into bits. Dammit, Lee must've memorized where she was landing as the smoke started.

Still, she had a little cover. Two hands, three seals, and the exact locations of the logs was concealed to her opponent, so he couldn't just stomp them all to bits and deny her their use.

Now, the smoke was starting to clear a little, and she saw a dome-topped silhouette charge through the smoke and put a fist through the stomach of one of her clones, dispelling it. Four clones remained.

One more jutsu, as the smoke was finally clearing and Lee seemed to be looking around between her clones in confusion. The Hell Viewing jutsu didn't require any kind of touch or anything; just the signs and her own initial focus.

Lee apparently decided to stop waiting around and charged with a fist forward...into a clone, leaving three left. He didn't seem able to differentiate them from Sakura herself so far.

Then, her genjutsu started to take effect, as Lee looked up a moment. He _should_ be seeing a swirl of leaves, from what Sakura knew of the jutsu. Then, he looked down to see whatever figment had been conjured up by the shinobi's mind. _If_ he fell for it.

"Noooooo!" And fall for it he did. Sakura had her shot now, she drew out her weapons and threw. And...Lee dodged them anyway? That couldn't be right.

"Gai-sensei, you cannot give up on your springtime of youth!" She had no idea what he was seeing. She drew out more weapons, kunai for straight at him, shuriken to strike from an angle. And...he dodged them, too! Dammit! Sakura had underestimated the effect of Lee's being on a team with a weapon specialist with a focus on especially large numbers of weapons.

"You are still very youthful! And young!" She most definitely did not _want_ to know what he was seeing. Throwing weapons at him wasn't getting results. Time to make risk an attack at close range; Lee wasn't _that_ far from her.

As she quietly approached the boy, though, he suddenly turned to her, his face a scowl, or as close to a scowl as Lee's face could show, especially when supplemented by his tongue sticking out. "Thakuda-than!" he yelled angrily. Dammit, he must've bit his tongue to escape the jutsu!

This didn't really leave Sakura much time to escape. She dropped the kunai, put her hands together, and substituted with a log. _Down to three of those,_ she thought as the piece of wood was shattered into fragments in place of her ribcage.

"Thap wup bedy umouthul ob ou!" She hadn't the foggiest idea what he was saying. Lee rushed again, charging through another clone. Two left of those left now, but on the bright side, they could be replaced, and Lee seemed pretty bad at distinguishing clones from herself.

[Konoha, Previously]

Tenten was helping Lee practice for a moment, taking a break from her own preparations. She had made one clone, and she stood next to it, while Lee tried to identify which of the two was the real kunoichi.

"It must be..." Lee started, before his dramatic pause, before pointing dramatically at one of the two figures. "...YOU!" The _wrong_ one.

"Nope," said Tenten.

Lee wasn't discouraged. "Very well. Tenten, make ten clones next, please!"

"Lee, I really don't think this will-"

"And if I cannot pick you out from ten clones, I will pick someone out from _one hundred_ clones!"

Tenten sighed. She realized now that she could've used her break to revise the letter she was writing to Shigure-kun, rather than what she had decided to spend it on. She was really worried that she had accidentally asked about the weather in Ame...

[Chunin Exam Arena]

Well, whatever the reason for that, it was to Sakura's advantage now. She made the two-handed sign, mirrored by her remaining doppelgangers, and five more appeared.

Throwing weapons wasn't working, and he seemed to have caught her when she tried to approach for a close-range swipe. Sakura was running out of options, offense-wise.

Now, he was charging clones again, taking out two more, taking the clone count down to five again. And oh crap, he got lucky! Sakura barely substituted again, bringing her down to two logs. Despite using mostly relatively cheap jutsu, Sakura was starting to feel the chakra expenditure.

Time to try and hold him again. Two signs and her Hell Viewing was activated again. This time, though, Lee wasn't buying it. "_Thiw_ bedy umouthul!" She wished he'd stop talking with his tongue stuck out like that.

This time, it seemed her genjutsu had just made Lee angry. He charged forth with renewed vigor, quickly taking down another clone before Sakura could react, and then delivering a chop toward herself. She substituted, leaving the log she used split in half on the taijutsu specialist's hand. One log left, then. She was now feeling dizzy from the repeated substitutions.

Four clones left, and at the rate he could scuttle them, that wasn't much, but any more she summoned now would be too obviously clones. Two hand signs; time to make a sound. She dug out a bell, mimicked by her four...make that three clones. Each threw down the bell toward the same area near Lee, where it made a "tang" that couldn't be traced to any one of them. They then all drew a kunai with a right hand, made a sign with a left hand, and waited.

"I kmow ba duthu!" She was still not entirely sure what he was saying, but Lee didn't flinch as the sound should've started. "I alreaby thaw ip!" He rushed again, taking out another clone. Two left. Sakura was starting to feel _very_ hot under the collar.

Then, Lee suddenly dodged an attack that wasn't there. _**CHA! SUCCESS!**_ Sakura's chosen sound for the jutsu had been one flying weapon, a pause of dead air, and then another flying weapon, this time clearly from the direction of a clone right next to the real Sakura. Thankfully, that clone was still intact, for several more hundredths of a second.

Lee threw a fist into the apparent source of the sound, but found nothing but the air behind the last clone. Sakura struck down with her kunai at the now conveniently-close shinobi.

But Lee was still too fast, and she only got a scratch along his left arm. He recoiled back, and then threw a punch. Do or die time with her one-handed substitution.

Thankfully, despite her dizziness, depleting chakra, and tiredness, fate decided to land on "do". Her last intact log to the hit, and she immediately threw down her remaining smoke bomb.

She jumped a moment, but as soon as she landed, she heard a sound. He must've heard her land! Nothing left but...

Two hands, one sign, one prayer to whatever deity might hear her, and one case of dizziness upgraded to outright nausea. Sakura had just managed to substitute with _half_ of a log, the one Lee had chopped in half a short time ago in the fight, which was still inside the smoke of her smoke bomb. She had kind of _guessed_ at it's location, since it didn't follow her pattern, but she had guessed right.

She didn't even breath now, for fear he might hear it. Two hands, one sign, five clones summoned, and Sakura was feeling really weak. She desperately needed a plan now. She needed more defenses, to give her another chance to get close. He wasn't going to fall for the bell again, and she wasn't about to try the mirage that pissed him off again. Dammit, she needed more logs.

Then, she remembered the arena. In the corner, were trees. Trees! Trees made of _logs!_ _Glorious logs!_ How to get them from... explosive tag. Blow up a tree, reap the rewards in defense. But how to get there? He'd see her running, would take her down before she arrived, even _with_ her five...

Body flicker. She knew the direction. One sign, two hands, hold it. She heard Lee running around in the smoke, throwing punches, and she knew she was probably down to three clones. Then two, as he stumbled into another in the smoke. Then just one. And then...

...she did it. No longer in the haze Lee was struggling through, into the trees. She grabbed a tag out, prepared to prime it and whooooa, she nearly fell over. Repeated substitution plus a body flicker she only sort of knew how to do had _not_ been kind to her stomach and sense of balance.

Regaining her footing, she primed the tag, stuck it to a tree, and she backed away from it, summoning more clones for when Lee inevitably saw through the smoke. Which should _really_ be soon now; shouldn't it have dissipated?

Thunk. Thunk. Sakura and her illusions looked back, and saw craters where some weights had just landed, and saw Lee with his leggings slightly up. He...had he just been wearing-

_Gone!_ Lee was suddenly nowhere to be seen, no, there he was, his fists through two clones, shit shit shit!

Then, they were rocked by the exploding tree, which sent _beautiful_ substitutable logs everywhere!

Just in time, too, as Lee finished off two more clones and was working to take out the last along with Sakura herself. Sakura substituted, and one log was gone. And Lee was on her. Substitute, log gone, Lee attacking, substitute, log gone, shitshit_shit_ this wasn't working, substitute, log gone, running out of good logs _fast,_ substitute, log gone, Sakura felt sick to her stomach, no risk no reward, substitute one hand while pulling out a kunai, holy shit it worked again!

She threw it at him, gaining _barely_ the time for another seal, making five clones, before she substituted again, and made more seals. In moments, Lee cleared through the last five clones, and then looked around.

Sakura didn't move, because trees don't move. Sakura didn't breath, because trees don't breath. Sakura swallowed back hard, because trees most definitely do _not_ throw up. She just stood there, motionless, another surviving sapling in the small copse of trees that had been partially reduced to logs.

She had no idea what to do. She could maintain this transformation for a few _seconds_ more, and then she'd be found, and she'd burn through her last couple substitutions before she ran out of usable logs, chakra, or both. She needed a way to get next to him, without moving to him, without much chance of him moving to her, and for her to have her kunai in position already.

Lee was looking away from her a moment. She took out one more kunai in the time she had, quickly and silently. If she threw, he'd dodge. She couldn't get close. What could she do, what should she do, what would she do, she had to do it fast, soon, what could...

A log. She noticed one log, behind Lee. Substitution wasn't purely defensive, it was _supplementary_. One sign in the hand that held no kunai...

She was next to him! She had her kunai out and forward already, around him, just the barest movement and he'd be-

"Ughlp!" Something in her stomach, and not one of Lee's limbs. Her nausea had caught up with her after one ninjutsu-boosted movement too many for her physical condition. She doubled over and threw up, retching helplessly on the ground.

Lee didn't attack; they both knew he didn't need to. He just moved away from her a moment and turned to face her. "I forfeit," she managed to croak out between retches of her stomach.

"Winner by forfeit: Rock Lee of Konoha!"

He held out an arm and helped her up, her stomach having finally settled a bit. "A most youthful match, Sakura-san," he said with a friendly smile.

_He's not a bad guy, when you're not fighting him,_ Sakura decided. It had seemed like a long match, but the fight was probably only two minutes. Sakura was sick and exhausted, while Lee was essentially unharmed, aside from one scratch she'd managed to land with her sound ruse. Despite that, Sakura did feel proud that she had done as well as she had.

Though she'd feel somewhat worse later on when she realised that she threw up in the middle of a crowded stadium.


	24. A Big Invasion

A Big Invasion

[Chunin Exam Arena]

Sasuke's match was up now, but his opponent seemed very much distracted. He couldn't blame Gaara, he supposed, after hearing he had a personal run-in Sasuke's teammate in full form. But seriously, the jinchuriki had forfeited. Either Gaara had an existential fear he couldn't get over, or Gaara was expecting to have to fight the blond anyway.

But, as the match started, at least, Gaara seemed to be brought back into what was happening right in front of him.

Sasuke jumped back, activated his Sharingan, which had advanced over the last month. He started hand signs for a lightning release justu he'd been taught just for this fight, hoping to use it and immediately cause serious injury. He'd have to end the fight without slaying Gaara, or else he would cause a lot of friction between the nations. Gaara, however, just immediately summoned a wave of sand.

Unable to proceed with his attack in the face of that, Sasuke jumped back and started circling around his opponent. In order to make his attack work, the Uchiha needed Gaara's attention to be elsewhere. He could punch through the sand shield, but he didn't want to run through a wall of sand on the way, risking being killed. The technique he had required rapid movement in a straight line to work.

Clones. Simple enough of a solution. Sasuke summoned five of them to start circling his opponent in different directions, covered by another wave of the opposing jinchuriki's sand. He, himself, doubled back and reversed his own movement pattern, slightly slower so that the clone going in the same direction passed him.

That seemed to do it, drawing Gaara's attention away, as he tried to swat away clones, starting with the three that had been going in his initial direction. He started his hand signs as fast as he could, his clones mimicking them as they danced around the waves of sand (mostly; one had been removed from the fight.). Nine hand signs was a few more than he really liked for any practical jutsu; he made a mental note to work on cutting that number way down in the future. After a time, his jutsu was ready, and he prepared his muscles to make the rapid charge, his Sharingan showing an opening.

Then, an ominous shadow appeared over the arena. Sasuke allowed himself a glance toward the source. It was...a tail. One of his teammate's tails waving in the sky, casting a shadow momentarily over their match. Not a threat, then.

Gaara didn't seem to agree, having ceased his own attacks to stare wide-eyed at the gigantic tail. Gaara was distracted. Perfect chance, if he was willing to exploit it. As a ninja, he was. He and all clones directed themselves at the jinchuriki, left arms alight with electricity, or the illusion thereof.

"I...I won't be erased. I won't die here," Gaara muttered quietly, his expression nervous, but determined.

As Sasuke finally charged, the arena suddenly seemed to come alive, sand from Gaara's waves earlier and from the ground itself gathering around the jinchuriki at an alarming rate. Sasuke was forced to stop short and abandon his "Chidori," or "Thousand Birds", or "Lightning Blade" (why couldn't Kakashi figure out the name for _his own jutsu?_), when he was suddenly running through a hyper thick sandstorm, releasing the chakra and jumping back.

There, he saw exactly what was happening. Like his teammate, Gaara could fully manifest the tailed beast, but in this case, it came in the form of controlled sand. The sand assembled itself into a gigantic tanuki with black markings lining parts of its body. The form of Shukaku. Though Sasuke noticed, it's body looked slightly different from the depiction's he'd seen before; it looked like a gigantic hand had closed around it.

However it may look, Sasuke felt that he was well and truly screwed in this fight from here on. His Sharingan saw no clear weak point, no part to attack to actually do any more damage than a bit of melted glass.

But...it wasn't attacking him. In fact, it was turning away from him, toward the other wall of the arena. No. It wasn't turning away from _him._

It was turning away from the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.

Then, something else. Sasuke felt...drowsy, for some reason. This really wasn't the time to be falling asleep. He then saw...falling feathers? Genjutsu! Dammit!

_Release!_ he thought, putting his hand into the proper seal. The drowsiness left him, but as he looked around, it seemed that it had taken effect on most of the stadium. What was...

A smoke bomb in the Kage box! Enemy ninja in the stands! Multiple walls suddenly appearing around a portion near the Kage box! Dammit, it was an invasion! And the use of the jinchuriki, that was no accident. Suna was probably involved!

Speaking of Gaara, he was now at the wall of the stadium, thankfully one with no spectator box on it. The beast was about the size of the top of it, and was trying to climb over, escaping the arena. The use of the jinchuriki in the arena, though, it was probably so it would attack the spectators. But now, it was running, or trying to, collapsing the wall in its clumsy movement.

In fear! Running in fear! That indentation on its back, that must've been from Gaara's encounter with Sasuke's teammate in the forest. He had used Shukaku's power to defend himself, maybe some kind of partial transformation, but the One-Tail had been injured in the process, and Gaara...his nervous twitching, his mutterings, everything. Gaara wasn't going to help the invasion now; he was just going to get away from the Nine-Tails as fast as possible.

Speaking of which, where _was_ his teammate? This whole invasion thing seemed like the very thing he was supposed to be stopping.

Suddenly, his sensei was down near him. "We're being invaded!" he said.

"You don't say!" Sasuke answered irately.

"We need Naruto to deal with that other tailed beast that's shown up!"

"You don't say!"

"Something's holding hi-"

"You don't freaking say! Listen, that thing, it's not _attacking_, it's _running!_ It's scared to death of Naruto, and trying to get away!" Sasuke yelled at his sensei. "It'll just make a beeline for the wall at this rate. We need to get ahead of it and evacuate it's path!"

"Very well, but if we can stop it... Dammit, sending Naruto to fight it _in town_ will just cause even _more_ damage!" Kakashi realized. "Also, Naruto wouldn't stay back from this by choice anyway. Something's keeping him back!"

"Anything that can keep him away when he's fully transformed is something we are _not_ ready to deal with," Sasuke concluded.

"Sasuke, Sakura, consider this A-rank. Clear the people from that thing's path! You should have support of Konoha shinobi throughout the city. You'll need that; invaders have probably breached the wall already. It's safe in the shelter behind the Hokage Monument!"

Sakura suddenly made herself known, having jumped down to the arena. "Yes, sensei!" she said. The two genin members of Team 7 headed off to clear out the path for the escaping tanuki, leaving the arena where shinobi fought shinobi, where the Ame and Land of Rain visitors were being lead to safety from behind their walls, and where a barrier had formed around the top of the Kage box.

Having remembered the fight prior to his, Sasuke offered a soldier pill to Sakura.

"I got one from Kakashi," she responded, "along with an anti-nausea pill. He even spared me a first-aid kit. I should be good to go for now."

[Top of the Hokage Box]

Orochimaru didn't leave his sensei time to react, attacking immediately through his disguise of a bodyguard for the Kazekage. The Kazekage himself, actually undead, took the front of the formation, along with his other bodyguard, also undead, a face that Hiruzen-sensei would remember quite well.

On the roof of the Kage box, he confronted the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, once the sensei of himself and the other two Sannin. The man was clad in his black battle armor and wielded his summon, King Enma, transformed into a staff. "Rasa!" he yelled angrily. "What is the meaning of this!? Does Suna think it can defeat Konoha?"

The Kazekage, rather than answering, moved forward to attack, along with his two "bodyguards." The Hokage jumped back and began hand signs, then breathed a gout of flame at them. They dodged, mostly, though one bodyguard countered with an impressively-sized blast of water, which overtook the fire in a moment, until it was stopped by a wall of mud, courtesy of the Hokage. That is, the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage actually seemed somewhat surprised by this. "You," he said, addressing the other bodyguard. "Who are you? I know of only one man who could use water like that in conditions like this." The bodyguard did not answer, however, and continued fighting.

The Kazekage's robe, however, had caught fire, and quickly burned away before the zombie tossed it aside, showing the red-haired man in full form. The Hokage seemed to notice something...off about his appearance, though.

Still, the Kazekage's gold dust went forth around the wall to try and hold down the old man, while the other bodyguard's next water jutsu struck from the side, and...the water just washed away the dust, while the old man jumped away unharmed. Orochimaru, who had drawn his "Sword of Kusanagi" and joined the fray, was discouraged. Himself and two Kages _should_ be enough to fight off his old sensei, but these two didn't mesh as well as the pair he had originally planned on.

He was interrupted when another ball of fire caught his own robe, revealing himself.

"Orochimaru! Are _you_ behind this!?" yelled his sensei.

"I thought I smelled a snake." _That_ voice wasn't his sensei, the Kazekage, or the other bodyguard. _That_ voice was once he really had hoped not to hear again. But, the best laid plans of snakes and men... It looked like Hanzo of the Goddamn Salamander was inside the barrier, preparing to join the fight.

"Hanzo-dono," Orochimaru began, "I have no conflict with you. I made sure to get all of your countrymen out safely. This is a matter between Suna and Konoha."

"Oh? What about Oto?" asked the interloper. Well, there went that secret. He supposed that couldn't have been hidden well, since it was something he felt safe enough distributing to an ordinary genin. "Besides, I have _plenty_ of conflict with you." Damn, shit, fuck, and several more exotic profanities! What had he done to provoke Ame!?

The fight proceeded, the Hokage and his impromptu Ame ally fighting against Orochimaru, the undead Kazekage, and their additional undead support, cut off from the outside by the Flame Battle Encampment set up by his Sound Four. But, this newcomer...didn't fight like Hanzo had in Orochimaru's memory. Indeed, it was a very unfamiliar style.

In a bit of time, the cloak on his last unrevealed ally was cut apart, revealing...

"S-Sensei!?" ...the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. Sarutobi-sensei's disbelief gave way to rage. "So... You used _that_ jutsu, defiling the grave of my sensei, did you?" He looked at Rasa, and noticed the similarity: crack marks along the body. "And you did the same with the Kazekage, did you? Needed to get Suna's help so Oto could take on Konoha? Then, Naruto must be delayed by..."

Orochimaru didn't answer. He was found out. But, still, this person that wasn't Hanzo, who was it? Who had Ame sent instead, and how had Orochimaru earned his or her ire?

But, the disguise on the Ame interloper was disrupted by a cutting blast of water from the Second (which, again, washed away some of Rasa's dust). It was...a kunoichi with blue hair and a paper flower in her hair. Orochimaru recognized who it was, and swore. Loudly. And then, he named her. "Konan," he said, venom in his voice.

"Orochimaru," she began, "I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you." The ring. The damn ring from Akatsuki, which he'd kept after he was removed from the organization.

"Back then," Orochimaru began a little shakily, "the scratched forehead protectors, those were just a ruse. You and Pain, you've been in control of Ame this whole time, haven't you!?"

First, the Suna jinchuriki had transformed early, exciting the crowd too much to put them to sleep very well. Then, instead of attacking like it was supposed to, it turned it's gigantic, sandy tail and ran, _right toward Suna's main invasion path._ And now that whole Akatsuki fiasco was back to bite him in the ass. Dammit, was it too much to ask that a large-scale invasion of the greatest military power in the world go _well!?_

[Konoha]

Temari had a sinking feeling in her stomach ever since the start of the finals. It was a _lot_ stronger when Konoha's jinchuriki suddenly transformed. Then, she was incredibly confused when he just surrendered and leaped away. She enjoyed watching that pink-haired little shit get chased around the arena like a mouse running from a tiger until she lost her lunch, but was again distressed when Gaara suddenly transformed, _before_ the signal.

She had jumped down to collect Kankuro to follow him. They needed him for the attack, dammit! Assuming the attack wasn't hosed because Orochimaru hadn't been able to deliver whatever his vaunted "trump card" against the Nine-Tails was. She was still _really_ leery about that, but as she looked back to the direction it was in while chasing down her youngest brother, she had to admit, it seemed to be working.

Around her, the invasion was working _mostly_ as planned. Orochimaru's summoned snakes had broken the walls, including some exotic-looking varieties, such as that gigantic three-headed one, or the large, dark-colored one with a mask. In the gaps in the walls, Suna and Oto shinobi were entering the city.

Well, the invasion was about to get thoroughly screwed up, unless she and Kankuro could redirect their mutual sibling _away_ from the main path. She and Kankuro would have to hurry to catch up, jumping or floating across the roofs of Konoha's buildings to where the giant tanuki was scrambling on, over, and through homes, businesses and infrastructure.

[Konoha, a few moments prior]

A certain transformed jinchuriki, this one loyal to Konoha, was lying down to wait while other matches played out. Tenzo-sensei had assured him that all was not in vain; his restraint with the use of the form would earn him some respect, and if he waited out here like this to greet certain nobles later, he could earn more, demonstrating that he was essentially harmless.

Then, however, after hearing the announcement of his kunoichi teammate's loss, he picked up a smell off in the distance. Several smells, including...the one that wasn't supposed to be there. But, several others, as well. They smelled vaguely like the Suna team. He also smelled...snakes. He stood up a moment, his tails rising with him. One in particular happened to wave over the arena, casting a shadow.

Before he knew it, Suna's jinchuriki had transformed. The fox-formed boy peered over the wall of the stadium to see what was going on, but that may have been the incorrect thing to do, because the newly-formed giant tanuki then immediately went to the far arena wall and started clawing on it and starting to crawl over, toppling it in a moment. His Suna counterpart escaping, the blond was about to give chase, but he was caught on something.

He saw the invasion breaking out, some outer walls being broken, and hidden foreign shinobi making themselves known in the city, but his attention was brought back to his own back legs, which were caught by what appeared to be...gigantic, wooden Foo dogs?

"**Tenzo-sensei?**" he asked. Maybe he was being warned to be careful about running through and possibly fighting in the city, but...

"They aren't mine!" yelled a voice from on the stadium wall. Turning there, he saw Tenzo-sensei in his full ANBU outfit.

Then who had summoned them? He looked again, as another, even larger wooden Foo dog arrived. On top of the construct stood a man with a face he recognized, a face he'd seen from his apartment every morning, back when he lived there. But, how was that possible?

The jinchuriki didn't know what to make of it as he looked into the face of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage and the undisputed master of the wood style.


	25. A Big Battle

A Big Battle

**Blood/injury warning**

[Konoha]

The invasion was in progress. In the streets, Konoha forces were fighting enemies from Suna and some enemies with an eighth note on their forehead protectors. The jinchuriki had never heard of the Village Hidden in the Eighth Note before, but apparently, it was a real place with real ninja.

And, for some reason, he didn't care. He was too calm to worry about it. Ever since the giant Foo dog the First Hokage was riding on had managed to plant a paw on his...the fox's head, he had become remarkably blasé about the whole invasion thing, even seeing the people he wanted to accept him without fear getting killed, even seeing the home he wanted to return to being picked apart, even seeing Tenzo-sensei taking a painful looking blow when he tried to help him with the Hokage, clearly no match and really not even a distraction for the master of wood style.

On some deeper level, a pit developed in his stomach. What the hell was he thinking? Was this the First Hokage's power? Why was the First Hokage here? And why was he preventing the jinchuriki from protecting Konoha?

Where rage was gone, though, he had to come up with something else. Something that wouldn't be calmed. Hate, he could hate him, hate the invaders but...that didn't work either. He couldn't bring himself to hate them. It couldn't be because he didn't disagree with their actions; he certainly did.

He was suddenly struck again by a Foo dog's hand, and he felt the fox's chakra receding. Like it did from Tenzo's jutsu, but much faster.

_No._ While he wasn't accomplishing much now, he knew that if he was stuck as the little blond kid, he was as good as useless. He held firm. For once, he directly resisted the reversion, drawing the fox's chakra out from the seal as it was taken out. This, at least, was easy enough to do, thwarting the suddenly villainous Hokage's efforts. His determination wouldn't falter there. He wouldn't be taken out of the fight completely.

His determination, that was it. That was an impetus he could maintain despite the enforced calmness he felt. He had his own goals, unlike the Nine-Tails of the past, which seemed to seek aimless destruction. And his goal, his determination to reach it, that would help him.

Finally, he was able to convince himself to move, to move the fox's body. He swatted away the constructs clinging to his legs, leaving each in damaged condition, and started moving toward the larger one that had somehow calmed him, and on which the Hokage stood. Carefully stepping around the buildings of Konoha, something he was thankful for all the practice in, he got in range, as the guardian moved to try and calm him again.

This time, though, he was ready, drawing the fox's head back swiftly, then biting it down on the paw, breaking it off, and then taking a claw and tearing the construct apart.

"**Tenzo-sensei,**" he said, addressing the ANBU that was getting back up and seemingly considering rejoining the fight, "**if you stay, you'll just get killed. Try and stop the other jinchuriki.**" He regarded his foe with his calm, but unbroken determination and fortitude; determination to protect, fortitude to withstand. "**I'll deal this lookalike myself.**"

As Tenzo-sensei must've realized his ineffectuality here, he left, hopefully to keep the other jinchuriki at bay _and_ keep himself out of danger of any other dead Kage. The apparent lookalike had abandoned its collapsing construct, and the jinchuriki gave chase again. Despite the incoming charge, the former Hokage seemed undeterred. In a moment, dark markings appeared in his face, reminiscent of what had appeared on Sasuke back in the Forest of Death. Then, he summoned something much, _much_ bigger.

A gigantic wooden Buddha statue, taller even than the fox's colossal form, with rows upon rows of gigantic, wooden arms. The new construct pushed aside buildings where it grew from, crushing them to rubble and almost certainly crushing those within in the process. As the arms of the statue bent toward him, the jinchuriki realized that this was really going to suck.

The fox's body was pummelled by the fallen Hokage's construct, wooden arms bending and growing toward him. When the jinchuriki caught one, instead of breaking off like the limbs of the Foo dogs, these instead were much sturdier, and required more effort to crack apart. With so many of them, it seemed a lost cause. He had to get up to the summoner. And to do that, he had to break a lot of intervening arms at once.

And to do that...he'd need to use the fox's tails. Most or even all of them. In town. He wasn't ready to try and do that yet.

But, now feeling physical pain through the fox's body for the first time, he was worried he might be ready to do so soon.

[Near Gaara]

Catching up to Suna's jinchuriki wasn't too challenging for the two Konoha genin of Team 7 that weren't preoccupied fighting an undead Kage. The sandy tanuki didn't seem to be extraordinarily fast or particularly graceful in its toppling march through town, though this meant there would be collateral damage.

Staying ahead of it while clearing out people was another matter. Some buildings were small, and the people there would trust them immediately, clearing out without a fuss. Some were larger apartments that were difficult to evacuate in a timely manner. They had to make tough decisions. A large building close to the tanuki's path was a lot of people, but almost impossible to clear out in time. They could go past yelling "Giant monster! Escape NOW!", and a few would take the hint and jump out before the monstrosity was upon them, but they couldn't do much else, having to then evacuate several other smaller, more escapable buildings further up the path.

Sasuke had been incredibly thankful to see the transformed Gaara tripping up behind him without any major buildings present. Looking carefully, he saw some tree branches that had grown up around the tanuki's feet, while a wooden construct grew to hold it down. His blond teammate's mysterious handler was skilled at dealing with more than just the Nine-Tails, it seemed.

The two were able to get much further ahead in this, but soon, they started running into another issue. The invaders were in town, in their path, and likely to attack them on sight, frequently forcing them to take detours. Sasuke Uchiha considered himself a skilled shinobi, for a genin, and Sakura had lately proven herself rather talented as well, but he had no illusions about them fighting on even footing with an invasion force consisting largely of chunin and jounin.

Fortunately, they weren't alone here, as several Konoha ninja also were able to assist. Three jounin, who together formed the famous "Ino-Shika-Cho" team, were in combat with the Suna and their note-marked allies. Hidden note? Hidden music? Hidden sound? Sound. Oto. _Orochimaru,_ Sasuke realized. _He's a big part of this, isn't he?_

The three jounin, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, and Choza Akimichi, were each fighting off multiple invaders in their own ways. Choza in particular had used an Akimichi jutsu to grow to gigantic size. As such, Sasuke noted that he didn't have to inform them of the coming danger.

"Hey!" Sasuke called out to them. "We've got a massive problem incoming; you must've seen it!"

"I did see that; where's our own counter?" asked Choza.

"Don't know; busy somewhere else. Whatever's keeping him busy, we have no place being near that," Sasuke said. "Right now, we've got someone delaying the One-Tail, but I don't know if he can do much better than delay it. Suna's jinchuriki is running _away_ from ours, and that direction is right down this road to the wall."

"You're trying to evacuate the path, right?" asked Shikaku.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun and I've been busy, but, we just can't be fast enough!" Sakura said. "Until a bit ago, we were hardly ahead of it!"

"We've been doing the same. Ran here from the arena, and have told several others to help," Shikaku explained. Then, he turned to his giant ally. "Choza! If any of us can help hold it back, it's you! Go help Tenzo slow it down, but _don't_ change it's course! We want it to use the path we've cleared already!"

As the giant Akimichi backtracked on the path, Nara clan head turned back to the Uchiha. "Keep going, but warn them _not_ to use the underground escape paths!" Wait, _not_ to use them? "We checked them, and they're crawling with these Oto ninja! They know about them!"

Sasuke's blood ran cold. They knew!? Spies, or... Sasuke swore loudly. Orochimaru, a traitor and missing nin of Konoha, was the leader of Oto. Even if some tunnels were added after he left, if anyone could figure out a way to sneak spies into Konoha, it'd be him. How many people that he and Sakura had warned had evacuated right into the enemy's hands because he hadn't noticed that earlier!?

Then another thought. "We've been sending them to the shelter behind the monument! Will the enemy be waiting there?"

"I got word from there. There was an attempt, but the enemy were flushed out by an ANBU squad," answered Shikaku. Good, so they hadn't sent _everyone_ to their deaths...

"Also, grab some other Konoha ninja to help!" added Inoichi. "Shikaku and I'll be on it in a moment, too!" _Another_ thing he hadn't thought of. Shikaku had mentioned it too. They could've been a lot more efficient in warning people!

Sasuke and Sakura continued their mission, new information in mind, and Sasuke cursing his own stupidity.

[Near Gaara, a bit earlier]

Temari and Kankuro had caught up to their brother, but had had little luck gaining his attention. He was single-mindedly trying to escape, plowing through buildings, defenders, and some of the advance invaders.

"Gaara! Listen!" Kankuro shouted from a high vantage point. "You have to go a different way! You'll crush our own forces this way! Please!" They had shouted before, they likely would shout again, but to no avail. Gaara was consumed with fear, fear of that..._thing_.

Temari was scared of it, too, but she had dealt with more fear in her own life, and she saw how it had been contained. Gaara had been essentially untouchable, invulnerable, since she knew him. The first time that invulnerability failed, he had very nearly died, and he had broken down. Now, he was confronted by the same foe, and he had become uncontrollable.

"Kankuro, it's not going to work," the Suna kunoichi finally declared. "I'll have to go ahead and warn them directly. Gaara won't be stopped." With her fan, she could float above most of the battlefield and the obstacles, and she'd be able to head off the invasion force, maybe get them to modify the path to allow Gaara through. Kankuro would stay to watch their youngest sibling.

Then, said youngest sibling was suddenly knocked over, and tackled by something, some kind of wooden creature. An ANBU agent was trying to fight Gaara. Gaara was fighting back, though. Short of another tailed beast, Gaara would be safe, right? Sure enough, he was shrugging off that attack, blasting a wave of sand in all directions, which Kankuro had avoided by jumping back once he saw Gaara under attack. Whoever was trying to fight her littlest brother was probably taken out.

Temari pressed forward, intent on warning the Suna and Oto forces ahead of the impending trouble. As she progressed, she saw some already in combat with Konoha forces. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a fleck of a bright pink color, and Temari knew where she'd be going immediately _after_ she warned the Suna invasion force...

[Top of the Kage Box]

Orochimaru had begun to hate lightning. His defenders in this fight were a man who controlled gold dust, which conducted electricity, and a man who was incredibly talented with jutsu based on water, which conducted electricity. This left a serious gap in the defenses his allies tended to provide him, forcing him to use his body replacement jutsu to remove the damage he incurred multiple times, lest he be overwhelmed by his sensei.

While his own wind style jutsu could typically fend off lightning due to elemental strengths and weaknesses, he had to focus most of _that_ on blowing away explosive tags that his former colleague wielded en masse. His undead minions had been obliterated a few times each by his opponent's attacks, and he was close to on the ropes himself, while Konan herself was able to avoid a lot of their attacks by flying around with paper wings of some form.

Still, not _everything_ had gone badly. The distinct lack of a gigantic fox gnawing on the corner of his encampment was a testament to that. Orochimaru supposed the long, sleepless nights of extra study on the Impure World Resurrection jutsu, or just Reanimation jutsu, if the former was too many words for one's taste, had paid off. Along with use of one of his more powerful, but soon-to-expire underlings as the sacrifice as opposed to some random schmuck. And the application of a variation of his cursed seal in order to help replicate some of the fallen Hokage's other abilities that he hadn't yet figured out how to fully restore normally. And the confrontation of the loyal jinchuriki in the middle of the town it was supposed to protect, preventing it from using many of its much more destructive abilities. Orochimaru figured one couldn't be too cautious here.

Still, the enemies already inside the encampment were getting to be too much. Time to sow some discord.

"Sarutobi-sensei," he began, "that woman, Konan, she's part of Akatsuki, an organization looking to capture all the tailed beasts, like that golden boy of yours!"

"Is she, now?" the Hokage questioned.

"Yes!" he responded quickly, sensing he may have a purchase in the man's mind here. "They're gathering them together, probably for some kind of weapon!"

"Is this true?" the elder man asked, still continuing his fight against his own sensei. Currently, he was blinded by the a jutsu from the Second, and was avoiding the zombie's attacks on instinct.

"...Yes," the kunoichi responded, after shielding herself from a wave of airborne gold dust through the use of her mysterious paper ninjutsu, "but I am but one member of the organization, and Orochimaru is a much greater immediate threat to Konoha."

"I'm afraid I agree," declared the Hokage.

Dammit, he wasn't getting through. "These undead, they're from the Second's original jutsu. They won't be destroyed, even if I die," Orochimaru began again. "In fact, if I _do_ die, they'll go on a rampage through town, killing thousands." _That_ should buy him reprieve, at least from the Hokage, who did seem taken aback by the comment.

"That doesn't concern me," noted Konan. Well, Orochimaru would take what he could get.

"Then, I'm afraid I'll have to seal them," the Hokage declared, "_after_ taking you down. After all, there's still one more outside of this barrier, isn't there? I have to be alive after this fight to get rid of that one."

Orochimaru decided that he needed to stop talking during his fights.

[Konoha]

The path finally seemed clear, or as clear as Sakura, Sasuke, and the other Konoha ninja joining them could hope for. The Suna and Oto ninja seemed to have thinned out significantly, too, even up to the breach in the wall, as far as Sakura could see ahead of her.

"It's as good as we can do," her companion declared. The others had split off to fight off invaders elsewhere in town, but Sasuke and Sakura weren't likely to have much luck doing that. They'd be better off heading back to find Kakashi-sensei, or any other higher up in Konoha that could direct them to where they'd be useful. At any rate, they'd be sought first on the path of the jinchuriki, so they'd start trying to help survivors of the rampage.

They went to go around Gaara, who was starting to get free from the snare composed of the ANBU and the Akimichi, and were heading back to the wrecked path, but Sasuke stopped partway. "There's a group that could use some support, but we have to help the wounded, too," he began.

Sakura noticed the group. Three Konoha chunin looked to be against two Suna invaders and two Oto invaders, and they were getting pushed back. How long would that confrontation last, even with their help?

"Can't let people die because I miss things. I'll help the fighters, you help the wounded!" Sasuke suggested.

The Uchiha was better in a fight than her, to be sure. Sakura wasn't sure she liked being sent off alone during this invasion, but this area should already be mostly cleared of invaders courtesy of the Suna jinchuriki, and Sasuke-kun could handle himself well enough anyway. Sakura agreed and proceeded to the torn-up section of town.

She was approaching what looked like the collapsed remains of a food stand, where a bloodied civilian girl with brown hair tied back by a white bandanna, a little older than Sakura herself, was struggling to pull away debris. Sakura remembered this part of town; she and Sasuke hadn't been able to get here before the retreating jinchuriki came through. Despite being collapsed, though, the nearby wreckage looked very much like it could collapse further on the remains of the stand, putting the civilian girl in danger.

"It's not safe here!" Sakura informed her, hoping she might be brought away.

"M-my dad, he's under there!" the girl said, frantically indicating the collapsed building.

Sakura put her arms on the girl's shoulder's. "Listen, we'll have ninja here that can move it; I'll make sure some get here in particular, but we need you to leave! It's not safe here! Get to the shel-" Sakura stopped mid sentence and jumped back, pulling the girl with her. A burst of wind struck where they had been, unsettling some of the debris around it.

The kunoichi looked up and saw a familiar face. Wielding a familiar fan.

_**Cha! Of all the fucking ninja from Suna that I had to run into, it had to be-!**_

"Go!" Sakura shouted to the civilian girl, who started moving immediately. This was _not_ a good situation. Her blond-haired opponent could attack her from a distance, and Sakura didn't have her ready supply of replaceable... The debris.

Temari sent forth a burst of wind, but Sakura avoided it, replacing with a damaged plank from the stand. Still, she'd have to pick out an opportunity to get close, or a route to retreat and get help, or some way to trick the Suna attacker into walking past an explosive tag, or-

Substitute again, and Sakura was already feeling horrible. Despite the pills from before, she hadn't fully recovered from the fight with Lee, and now that she _really_ needed to substitute a lot to survive, she was much more limited in what she could do.

Temari found seemed to find a perverse joy in the situation. "Run, run, little flower girl," she said, chuckling quietly. "I'll hunt you down, break all of your bones, cut off your head, and mount it on a wall!" The Suna kunoichi had clearly not taken her defeat in the preliminary well.

Not many ninja were around, mostly searching for the injured or fighting Oto forces that had started coming from out of the shelter tunnel. Sakura was on her own for the moment.

Seeking some easier defense to apply to herself, Sakura quickly summoned up clones, and she and they scattered in different directions. But unlike Lee, Temari had a ranged attack that could strike a wide area, and Sakura was quickly knocked down, and her clones dispersed.

Then, another gust of wind from the fan, a different one. Sakura was lifted up into the air. From the corner of her eye, she saw that Temari wasn't even swinging the fan any more; she was controlling the summoned gale with her chakra and wind manipulation.

Then Sakura felt something sharp on her left arm. Then again on her right leg. Her left thigh. Across her right arm. Temari's jutsu was starting to cut her apart, the wind sharpened into a swarm of invisible blades. Sakura needed to escape, before a major blood vessel was cut and she bled out.

Nearby, a Konoha kunoichi noticed her plight, but was surprise-attacked by an Oto shinobi before she could render any help. Dammit, there were still too many invaders here! Probably from the tunnels!

As Sakura scanned the area with the limited movement she could make, taking more and more cuts as she did, there weren't any good targets for substitution to be found in range. A few mediocre ones, though. She tried to bring her arms together, but the wind buffeted her and sent them apart again. _One-handed it is, then!_ Sakura decided, having little option.

It didn't work! It didn't freaking work! Sakura had tried, and chakra was spent, but it had failed; she was still caught in the cutting wind, still feeling sharp pains throughout her body as she was held in the air.

And then, Sakura saw one more thing. Temari was moving one hand, about to bring it sideways. Sakura suddenly recalled her opponent's words a few moments back. _**CHA! MOVE, OR I LOSE MY HEAD!**_ But Sakura couldn't get out of the air; she could barely struggle in place! _**DON'T FUCKING CARE! MOVE! MOVE SOMEHOW! MOVE SOMETHING! MOVE MOVEMOVEMOVE!**_

The pink-haired kunoichi somehow, _somehow_ managed to lean sideways, around ninety degrees, as the wind user brought her arm across. She kept her head on her shoulders, this time, but a horrible, agonizing, slicing pain on her right side informed her that she hadn't quite kept everything. _**MY ARM MY ARM MY ARM MY ARM!**_ And she was still up in the air. Temari was momentarily surprised, but directed her arms again.

She had to try again. Substitute with something, anything, more chakra, _all_ her chakra, she had to get down, _now!_ One remaining hand, one sign, the vast majority of her remaining chakra, and Sakura was out, on the ground, a bit of wreckage blocking the view of where she was from Temari. She was still in extreme pain, and still bleeding to death at an alarming rate, but she wasn't dead yet. She tried to walk, but hobbled, and then kind of crawled, toward a a nearby damaged, but standing building to hide a moment.

"No you don't!" And Temari had followed her. After she had just barely, dramatically, survived, she was still being hunted, still in imminent danger. Finding some kind of strength, she barely scrambled inside, scampering further in after a moment of preparation.

Temari followed her to the entry, confronted with four pink-haired targets spread out through the room, but her eyes quickly followed the trail of blood to the far right target, and she readied her fan, which would almost certainly finish off Sakura now.

Then, she jumped back out of the entryway, just barely clearing the explosion Sakura had left for her there. _Dammit!_

The entry collapsed, and Sakura was worried the rest of the building would follow in a moment, but this building, she had recognized it as an old ANBU building, converted to other use since then. It was sturdier than most. It held, though the entry was blocked.

For a moment. A blast of wind, and the dust and debris was blown around and away, leaves from outside blowing into the building with them, and a furious-looking kunoichi just outside, fan at the ready.

Sakura had one chance left. She'd never managed to do this before, and she didn't know if it would work on her opponent, but if it didn't, she was _dead._ Last chance, last ever. Two signs, hidden largely hidden by the dust and poor light. Sakura focused, her Hell Viewing illusion activated. Would it work? Would she live? Or would she die, here and now?

Temari readied her fan, preparing the death blow to her wounded, panicking prey, but then she seemed to be distracted.

Sakura watched her would-be killer look around, suddenly in a panic of her own. She looked to the side, back toward the path the Suna jinchuriki had gone along before, and began to tremble, frozen in fear. But then, she seemed to get a hold of herself, gritting her teeth, and slowly moving.

"I...I don't care how big you are..." Temari began. "I don't care how many fucking tails you have." She was walking now. "I won't let you kill Gaara!" She ran and jumped, floating swiftly away on her war fan. Temari had been drawn off by her deepest fear. A fear that, here and now, was actually very plausible.

And just like that, Sakura was alone.

She looked at her side. Her right arm was gone. Fingers, hand, lower and upper arm, shoulder, all gone; not even a stump. Nothing left but rapidly flowing blood and symmetry to show that it had been there.

Speaking of blood, at the rate it flowed from her severed limb, Sakura realized that she probably wouldn't survive to the end of the hour.

She began to scream as loudly as she could.

[Konoha]

Sasuke had helped out a losing Konoha squad with a grand fireball and a bit of shuriken, having decided to split Team 7's forces to do more good, taking a few cuts and from thrown shuriken in the process, then started to head back to his original task. Now, though, he was growing apprehensive as he realized that his spur of the moment decision had separated him from his teammate to a greater degree than he expected, as he tried to get back to Sakura and get back to clearing out survivors.

Then, he saw a retreating Suna kunoichi riding a fan. For a moment, anyway. Then she was knocked out of the air by a surprise fire jutsu from an unseen Konoha ninja. But, why would she be...

Sasuke's heart rate somehow climbed higher, and then he heard a scream. As he approached the sound, he saw a limb lying on the ground, and hoped against hope that it didn't belong to who he thought it did.

But as he followed the scream, he was proven right, and his hopes were dashed. Sakura lie in her own pooling blood, her lost limb leaving not enough trace to bind with a tourniquet from her medical kit, and the bleeding far too strong to block with the bandages. Medical ninjutsu was the only thing that could save her now.

"MEDIC!" He stayed out of the building and shouted, over and over. Because if she didn't get one now, Sakura would die, die of blood loss, die at the hands of an enemy shinobi, die because of his mistake, and he couldn't let that happen.

Luckily, someone arrived. He didn't even regard the person, except for the Konoha headband and recognizing a medical kit on his person to indicate his skill, as he _dragged_ him into the building.

The boy set to work, putting a glowing hand over the clean cut and turning it immediately into ugly, but solid scarring. He then immediately pulled pills from his pack and shoved them in her still-screaming mouth. "Swallow!" he ordered, and Sakura was thankfully still of enough mind to comply. He then set to work stifling the bleeding from her innumerable other cuts.

After that, he got some of Sasuke's own cuts, since he was already working on such things. He seemed to dwell awhile on a wound near the his neck, but Sasuke didn't remember that one.

"What-why-how did this happen!?" the medic asked. Sasuke noticed now that he was a grey-haired boy with thick glasses and a chunin flak jacket.

"I-I-I don't know!" Sasuke responded. "I-I wasn't there when it happened; I'd split off to support another squad quick, and when I got back she-"

"You _abandoned your genin teammate in middle of a fucking warzone!?_" the medic demanded. "Why, why would you do that, why would you _ever_ do that!?"

"I thought we could handle two-"

"Genin teams are _teams_ because a lone genin in a combat zone involving chunin or jounin is _meat!_" The medic seemed to calm down from his hyperventilation. "Listen, she's not about to die of blood loss now; her blood should be coming back with those pills, and the wounds aren't bleeding. But she's _not_ in a good place medically. If she's going to survive the night, you'll need to get her to a hospital, or at least the medical area of the shelter, _now._"

"O-okay, but, her arm-"

"-is gone, lost, forever. Whether it was your idea, or hers and you just stupidly went along with it, that's an unfixable consequence, on your shoulders." He picked her up carefully and handed her to Sasuke. "Now, _go!_ I've got to help survivors here!"

Sasuke took his now unconscious teammate and started taking her to the shelter, the medic's words echoing over and over in his mind.


	26. A Big Retreat

A Big Retreat

[Top of Kage Box]

With the focus on him in particular, Orochimaru was losing ground, and fast. He only had three major things to fall back on. Two would require the Sound Four to drop the shield, which would allow others to enter the fight, causing even _worse_ odds, and would probably allow his sensei to escape a moment and seal all of his undead while his former colleague kept him busy, resulting in the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki having a free hand to cut down himself, the invasion force, and the One-Tail's jinchuriki. Of those two, one would probably just fail immediately once it saw the odds it had been summoned against, and the other would essentially annihilate his current body, forcing him to find another host very soon, when his main choice was far from ready.

The third would not require dropping the shield, but would give the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki a free hand to cut down the invasion force and the One-Tail's jinchuriki, while he would be protected, at least at first, by the shield, though it wouldn't stand up to direct attack from a tailed beast for long.

Besides those, he could continue the fight as it was going, die in combat, the shield would surely be abandoned, and his invasion and the One-Tail's jinchuriki would be destroyed anyway. And no, Orochimaru wasn't interested in that option.

The signs were clear. It was time to retreat. From what Sarutobi-sensei said, he'd focus on taking down Orochimaru first, not even trying to seal the undead now, since he'd have to be "alive after this fight" in order to get the last one. This implied that his only available method of stopping the rampaging undead would involve his own death. Given time, Orochimaru suspected the old man would be able to come up with another solution, but there wouldn't be time, not with unkillable Kages on the loose. So, if nothing else, the traitorous Sannin would at least have his primary target killed.

Dodging a blow from his sensei's staff, Orochimaru considered exactly how, then barely dodged another blow as the staff suddenly changed directions, his sensei having predicted his movement. He'd need something to distract his opponents, but the resources he could call on here were limited, probably just his third option of his original three major tools. Also, there was an explosive tag next to him, and it got his legs before he could get away, forcing him to replace by shedding his skin, and he was forced to do so again immediately when his body was suddenly blasted with a powerful lightning jutsu that he didn't recognize.

Still, plans for escape. He'd summon back the First Hokage, who'd provide cover, along with the other undead, he'd signal for the shield to drop, and retreat with the cover of those three. But, he realized, avoiding another set of explosions by hiding behind a gold dust shield, he needed to keep the First with him if he was to have any decent defense against the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki attacking Oto in the future. So, the First would have to act defensively on his arrival, hopefully to avoid whatever kind of seal Sarutobi had in mind.

No time like the present, regardless. "So, is _this_ what the vaunted 'Will of Fire' is?" The signal was sent. His Sound Four had heard, and would drop the barrier when he approached it. Now, he took a moment to, hang on, a moment to dodge, _then_ a moment to summon back his First Hokage.

But as the wooden coffin was summoned behind him, he saw his sensei smirk and vanish in an already-prepared body flicker. When he looked back, the old man was next to the coffin already, summoning shadow clones, and then making further signs. He must've readied the flicker when Orochimaru was working on the summoning. The old man had seen through him once again.

[Konoha]

Kankuro saw red smoke. A signal he had been dreading. The Nine-Tails jinchuriki's containment had failed. The Kazekage, who was much closer to where the Nine-Tails was trapped, may already be dead, and they'd have only a short time before it was on top of them. Time for a general retreat. There was no fighting to be done in the face of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

But...

He looked at where his transformed brother was still heading toward the wall, having finally broken free of whatever Konoha ninja had been able to delay him. He was too big, and stood out too much. Even if he got out of the city, the fox could just chase him down and kill him.

If that happened... Kankuro shuddered. No offense to Baki-sensei, who was certainly a very powerful jounin, but he was no S-rank. Without a Kage and without a jinchuriki, and especially with the losses the puppeteer had seen Suna incur today, the village could very well be done for.

Gaara was dangerous, often psychotic, but he had been getting more personable lately, he was still Kankuro's little brother, and, finally, he may very well be Suna's last hope. He couldn't let him die here.

He could see the fox moving in the distance, but... it was moving carefully, avoiding doing any damage to the town. If Gaara was in town, Konoha's jinchuriki couldn't fight freely.

But, on the other hand, if he left town, then his fate and probably Suna's were sealed.

He had to get through to him. Gaara couldn't leave town like this. Stay in town, and he might survive. Maybe... maybe he could escape. Dispel Shukaku's form after distracting the fox, and retreat... to where? Underground. The shelter and escape tunnels, that Oto had taken over and used to escort the Ame and Rain citizens safely to the gates and then out. Beneath the town, where the fox wouldn't fit, where it couldn't reach down to without damaging town.

But... those tunnels, were any of them nearby? They weren't near a gate, and they weren't near the center of town where they'd more likely need to evacuate from a threat inside the town. Kankuro really, _really_ wished he'd better remembered those details in the briefing right now.

Still, he had a jinchuriki to warn, if not to get him to dispel and hide, then _at least_ not to go beyond the walls of Konoha. Somehow.

[Konoha]

A jinchuriki had been struggling with a long-dead Hokage, but suddenly, the limbs, tree limbs, bodily limbs, or whatever, had become a lot weaker, allowing him to break free. Looking to finally reach his attacker in a way that wouldn't cause more collateral damage than his struggle already had, he realized the scent was lost, no longer present on the head of the wooden statue. No, not lost, moved, over onto the arena, where the barrier he had occasionally seen was now gone.

He had carefully approached, avoiding stragglers who were still trying to leave, and who tended to flee around his steps, while noticing all the places where that gigantic statue had beaten the fox's body. As he was close, he saw the Hokage, who had gotten hold of the former Hokage, plus another former Hokage, and one other person, who he vaguely recognized from a past picture as the Kazekage. Behind one of the Hokages, an extraordinarily ominous apparition lurked.

The old man had noticed his approach, which really wasn't saying much, and one clone turned to speak to him. "Naruto, this is handled! Orochimaru's being tracked down by others!" Orochimaru? Sure enough, the jinchuriki had noticed another scent, the familiar snake scent, minus most of the mud. "Go track down the other jinchuriki and stop him, but do _not_ kill him! And...thank you, thank you for your service to Konoha. May it continue, and may you return home soon!"

He hadn't sure what to make of the last bit, but it sounded like the Hokage was inviting him to return after the invasion. But, he hadn't really done much to prove it yet, had he?

Still, he had a goal ahead of him now, following the trail of destruction on the other side of the arena. Sure enough, at the end was another beast around the size of the fox, a tanuki made of sand, near the far wall.

The path it took, though... It made his blood boil. He had trained, trained hard, ever since that night, so that he could, if needed, get through town safely. And now? Another jinchuriki had just rampaged through, destroying buildings, not caring for the welfare of the city he was to protect, not caring about the lives underfoot.

Making his way around the arena, he started following the path. But, as he proceeded, he couldn't help but notice what lay on it. People. Some alive, many dead. Scents of his teammates, somewhere a scent of his teammate's _blood_, scents of the town he'd wanted to return to, scents of snakes, scents of unfamiliar invaders in retreat, and a scent he knew couldn't be there.

And the scents of two other people he knew, scents that gave him pause in his pursuit. Down at the fox's right front foot, he saw one person that hadn't moved away at the feel, sound, and sight of his approach. Ayame was there, brown hair still held back by her white bandanna, struggling with a pile of wreckage. He also smelled Teuchi, but-

No. He leaned forward, and...Teuchi's smell, it was from there. The ruin, he suddenly recognized bits of it, and he quickly reached a hand over. He shoved aside a ruined building, and then picked up much of the broken debris. Below it, he uncovered a familiar old chef he knew.

Ayame ran over to him, but the jinchuriki couldn't stay to consider, to think about it. He looked forward. To the enemy. To the monster. The destroyer. The murderer. The one he would end.

[Konoha]

Shukaku was a tailed beast, considered the weakest, ever since Father had brought them forth. He had long resented Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox, who held the number of tails in such high regard, and seemed to like to lord it over the rest of them. He had fought the bastard fox before, as had several of his siblings, but he rarely had won; the fox's pride, while overbearing, wasn't without cause.

Still, they were siblings, and back then, the fights hadn't been anything meaningful. Even when Kurama had gotten irate in their arguments, the fights had been nothing that any of them couldn't recover from fairly quickly.

Really, in the time the tanuki knew the fox, Shukaku found that Kurama had grown to be irritable and generally a prick. But, it was very rare that Shukaku would see his nine-tailed brother actually angry. Back then, he had been happy never to be on the receiving end of that anger.

Now, though, as he was finally handed over control of the body, Kurama was charging _him_ with a look of anger and hate that Shukaku had never seen before.

His normally rather manipulable container had stupidly gotten into a conflict with the fox previously, and had called on his power to save himself, but in defending his host, the tanuki had taken damage that he hadn't been able to recover from yet, something that hadn't happened in a long time.

And now, though he wasn't sure exactly how, his container had pissed off the fox, and they were both going to pay the price.

But, he would fight back. He wouldn't be dispersed now. For some reason, his container and that weird looking human with a partially purple face thought that the fox might not fight as hard if they were in this city. He'd been informed when the weird-looking prick had impudently jumped onto his beautiful face. He felt that should be punished, but his container was still in control, and the funny-looking human's frantic yelling and charades had eventually convinced the container to stop just running. Shukaku himself would go with it because he certainly didn't have any better ideas now; he was no match for Kurama in a footrace.

Gathering wind in his chest as quickly as he could, he brought both fists down into it to shoot the ball of condensed air and chakra toward his sibling. Surprisingly, it caused more than a momentary flinch, actually knocking the fox off its feet for a moment.

That moment was just what the tanuki needed. Now, he could gather far more chakra for something much stronger...

[Konoha]

The transformed blond regained his footing after that sizeable explosion the enemy jinchuriki shot, and continued moving. Now, though, the tanuki with the apparently unconscious jinchuriki on it's head was doing something else, gathering more and more chakra in a gigantic, menacing ball above it's mouth. He had been preparing to dodge, but...

...he didn't want to see what would happen if _that_ was launched into the village. He had to interrupt it, but the enemy was too far away to reach. He was going to sweep with a tail, but then... the tanuki seemed to swallow the attack? What was going on?

Then, it's neck swelled a moment, and it opened it's mouth. The fox's jinchuriki jumped forward, to try and intercept the sudden blast, and...was successful.

The jinchuriki noticed first and foremost that that attack had _hurt like hell._ Then, he noticed that it had knocked the fox's body back, flopping him backwards and onto the cleared path with limbs splayed outward onto some buildings. Getting up as safely as he could, he saw the damage caused by that gigantic blast of chakra. He had himself stopped most of it (in a way he wasn't eager to repeat), but some went to the sides, searing through buildings and melting a hole in the ground below.

Also, the damn tanuki was making another one, to try and strike him again, destroy more of his home, kill more people. That wasn't going to happen.

Konoha's jinchuriki charged again, ignoring the pain in the fox's limbs and face. He rushed and was able to tackle the enemy down, knocking whatever the tailed beast's ball was away prematurely, which landed outside the wall detonated.

It was time to end this. He bit down on the tanuki's neck, eliciting an inhuman scream of pain, dug the fox's claws into chest, and started tearing the sand monster apart. It tried to throw him off, tried to strike back with it's limbs, but it got weaker and weaker, and soon, the sand construct started melting apart. The fox's chakra had likely overwhelmed it.

The massive pile of sand remained, but where was Gaara? He sniffed the air, and among the smells, Gaara was nearby, one of the few people still in the area. Among the others were a few paltry Suna ninja, including one of Gaara's teammates. Kankuro, was it?

[Konoha]

Was Gaara alive? Was his brother still alive? Kankuro wasn't close enough to tell, nor did he have the time to check if he was. He only saw where he landed at the edge of the sand pile, and he knew he had to get him. He knew that carrying Gaara would slow him down. He knew that the fox would see him and start to target _him_ once he got up to Gaara. He knew that it would have no mercy this time, and the he would die if he was caught.

He also knew that normal foxes were related to dogs, that dogs were creatures that tracked by scent, and that the same _might_ hold true for this monster. He also knew that without his puppet Crow, he would have better luck carrying Gaara.

He sent the puppet out into the air above the fallen jinchuriki for it's final performance, activating the explosives, smoke bombs, and gases he had prepared all at once. The fox must've been momentarily surprised by it, because it didn't immediately bring a claw down into Gaara.

It was the only chance he had now, before the fox paid attention again, and before the cocktail of every variety of poisonous gas he had descended down to kill his brother. He sprinted under it and picked up the boy, hearing some other, conspicuously much louder footsteps as he did so.

He ran. Into town, because out of town would be obvious and wouldn't give cover, even though into an enemy ninja village in broad daylight was barely better than suicide itself. Then, the rush of air, and a crash as the fox's paw came down... on the other footsteps. Someone, and he didn't know who, had just taken the blow meant for him.

He didn't have time to consider that. He carried Suna's jinchuriki under Konoha's, heading for the hole in the ground created by the former earlier. From his vantage point, he only barely avoided getting disintegrated himself, but he thought he saw something down there, a way underground, and he didn't have time to look for a better escape route before the other jinchuriki caught onto their scents again and gave chase.

They were in luck; there looked to be a tunnel there. He promptly jumped in, clearing the still superheated edges of the hole, just as the fox behind him was turning back, having recognized how it had been duped.

It was a fairly long drop; good for putting distance between Kankuro and an angry Nine-Tails jinchuriki, bad for falling down unassisted. Still holding his brother, Kankuro managed to get his feet to grip with chakra on the edges of the wall for a moment, and _holy hell_ that hurt. Kankuro was suddenly reminded that the walls were freshly melted glass.

Still, it was enough to not be killed by way of gravity. The two Suna ninja landed on a set of subterranean stairs, and the two tumbled down separately. Hopefully Gaara wouldn't be significantly _more_ injured by that, after everything else. He briefly saw flashes of a a paw being planted down on the opening. Then he heard crashing, crushing, as the paw was breaking through the hole, making it wider and trying to reach down toward them, but not quite able to reach down to the stairs.

When he and his brother finally came to a stop, they looked to be in a bunker of some form, rather far below the street. It was sweltering hot in here, probably the aftermath of whatever that attack Shukaku had used was. But, Kankuro didn't have time to dwell on whether or not he was going to melt or suffer chakra poisoning if he remained here long, nor why the bunker didn't look quite like how the briefing had described the shelters. The rumbling above and the bits of the ceiling falling down on him implied that they weren't completely safe yet.

There were a few hallways here, and Kankuro had no idea which led where. Then, he heard another loud sound, and this time, from next to him. An explosion!? One of the entrances suddenly collapsed, kicking up a cloud of dust. Dammit, his ways of escape were closing! Another explosion, another entrance started collapsing. Only one hallway left, and he heard the explosion, and his last hope was getting sealed.

But, when the dust cleared, there was something blocking it. It looked like a snake. A very large one, with dark-colored skin, though everything was dark-colored in the poor lighting here. Lastly, it had what looked like a Noh mask on it's head. The puppeteer suddenly remembered a snake that looked vaguely like this when snakes broke down walls. He supposed it had to be a summoned snake from Oto, and that meant it was an ally, and it might have a way out!

At the moment, the apparent snake seemed to be holding up a wall, one that looked very much like the walls of the bunker itself. Kankuro looked around, and after the dust cleared, he couldn't even tell where the other hallways to the bunker had even been before.

The creature started squeezing itself out, somehow able to reshape itself to get through, but Kankuro tried to motion for it to stop. "The other hallways down here are blocked, and the stairs over there lead right to Konoha's damn fox," Kankuro explained, hoping the creature would understand. "We have to get Gaara here to safety, or Suna is as good as dead. The fall of a great village, that could be enough to start another full scale Shinobi War..."

[Konoha]

The jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox looked at the route of escape for the enemy jinchuriki. His attempts to reach down had been fruitless, and trying to break through the tunnels was likely to collapse them, possibly on allies and civilians, not to mention the shockwaves might damage even more of the buildings and infrastructure in the area. For now, it looked around, seeing some other Konoha ninja nearby.

Suna and Oto were in retreat. Their jinchuriki, though escaped for the moment, was defeated. He motioned to a nearby ANBU. "**Gaara and his teammate escaped down there. I can't reach them.**" A few ANBU immediately went toward the hole, and the jinchuriki turned his attention back to the escaping ninja. They had attacked his home, killed his people and now they were just going to walk away, alive and unharmed. He took a step forward, toward the gate...

...and felt something squish beneath the fox's foot. Looking at the pad of it a moment, he saw what it was and remembered. Someone else had distracted him from stomping the jinchuriki earlier when the weird puppet exploded into a vile smell and obfuscating haze, and he had ended up stomping them instead. It was a momentary distraction, but had allowed the the other two to escape.

He looked closer and, as the head had remained mostly intact, he recognized the person as the Suna team's sensei. He didn't know the man's name. It felt wrong, for some reason. He had been prepared a moment ago to chase down the fleeing invaders, but now, seeing one he had just crushed, not even aiming for him...

This man. He had sacrificed himself, just given up his life as a momentary distraction, just so others could live. The boy had snuffed such a man out just like that. Despite everything that had happened today, it..._still_ didn't feel right, that people should suddenly die like that, by his hand, even though he was intentionally trying to kill someone.

He remembered now what the old man had told him. He was not supposed to kill the jinchuriki. For what reason, he wasn't sure, but he had gotten angry and started to go against a direct order from the Hokage, someone he respected deeply. And after that, he was planning to go out beyond the wall and kill more of them, people no longer a threat, people fleeing for their lives...?

"Naruto." The voice belonged to Kakashi-sensei. The jinchuriki stopped regarding the fox's paw a moment and turned to see the silver-haired jounin standing on an intact building nearby.

"There are people in town that are alive, but trapped by rubble," the jounin explained. "You can smell and hear them, and you're plenty strong enough to dig them out. Go."

The transformed jinchuriki turned toward the path of destruction that Gaara had made. He could feel the fox's body already recovering. Unlike the One-Tail, the Nine-Tails seemed to have more chakra to keep it's form together. Physically, he felt practically perfect now, ready to put the fox's strength to something positive. Before he left, he turned back toward his sensei for a moment. "**Thank you.**"

[Konoha]

Sasuke was searching for something. Searching furiously. He _knew_ it was around here. He _saw_ it. He'd been distracted at the time, and hadn't remembered all the details, but _it was there._

At the shelter, Sakura had been checked for a moment, and then they'd been left in a line for treatment. "Too many people," the medic there had said. "She's stable for now, and she'll need more treatment before we can send her home, but there are worse cases right now."

Finally, when it was time for his teammate to get checked, more detail had come up. The cut, while thorough, was clean. If he had the arm, it could be reattached. That he didn't, however, surprised the medic. "It looks like this was treated by medical ninjutsu. Did the medic not say to keep the arm to reattach it?"

Sasuke had thought back, but by that time, his memory of talking with the medic had grown fuzzy. "It... I don't think it came up. I didn't have the arm there; he probably didn't see it. Must've thought it was gone."

"Dammit," the medic had said. "Listen, if you want to help her, you're going to need to get that arm back. Do you remember where it was?"

"...Yes, but there's still an invasion going on." Sasuke had looked around to find someone to go with him, lest he meet an unfortunate fate himself. Eventually, he had gotten an ANBU with a boar mask to go with him, and he'd made his way back.

This building, he recognized it. Looked like a former ANBU building. A little bit outside, he saw some familiar debris, but... some parts had shifted.

He got to where he recalled seeing it lying on the ground and...

"_NO!_"

...all he saw left was the aftermath of an explosive tag.

The last real hope he knew of for Sakura's arm was gone. Gone because he hadn't thought. Hadn't thought to mention it to the medic at first. Hadn't thought to take it when he first saw it. Hadn't recalled some of the few details about medical ninjutsu from the academy, because it wasn't a way to get stronger to fight Itachi.

He had failed Sakura, failed his team, failed his sensei, failed Konoha, and failed to honor the Uchiha name.

He rubbed his sore neck.

[Outside Konoha]

A white snake slithered along the ground, heading in the direction of the Land of Sound, formerly the Land of Rice Paddies. Orochimaru had lost a lot more than he had expected to in the invasion, having had to use his Eight Branches technique, closer to Five and a Half Branches with the limited chakra he had left, in order to survive the pursuit by Akatsuki's token female member. Summoning Manda _might_ have worked, but summoning Manda _might_ have also just resulted in the giant snake attacking him after getting sick of taking explosions to the face and biting through paper. After today's events, any plan relying on what _might_ happen for him to survive to see tomorrow sounded like a bad plan.

He had fought back with the technique, to be sure, and while he was a gigantic, multi-headed snake monster, he certainly _thought_ he got some good hits in. But, the way she had been flying around and dissolving into loose sheets of paper when he made any contact, and given Orochimaru's luck so far today, she was almost certainly alive. Probably essentially unharmed, as well.

Now, having used that jutsu to survive the fight and ultimately escape, he didn't have a real body. Unless Kabuto had figured some miraculous way to deliver Sasuke and his Sharingan to Oto during the middle of the invasion, he was going to have to use a backup body.

[Konoha]

A ninja bearing a Konoha symbol, with hair charitably described as silver and otherwise described as grey, walked through a tunnel to pass off a scroll to a certain Oto ninja before the retreat was finished. Kabuto Yakushi considered himself a master infiltrator and spy.

A short time after the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki had suddenly become able to use the full form, he had shown the competence to receive a field promotion, so he could get higher rank information and keep more specific track on its movements. His snake-summoning master needed to have good information on the movements of a threat of such magnitude.

His master's desires, however, remained, despite the new development. Inability to act due to the jinchuriki's presence had limited their ability to influence the boy. It had seemed like it would be a long time before they were able to get any kind of hold on the last loyal Uchiha.

Then, while subtly keeping an eye on the boy during the invasion, a new development had given him a perfect opportunity. It seemed that Sasuke had developed actual bonds with his teammates over the course of recent missions. Bonds that could be pulled on, and used to drag him.

A subtle genjutsu to make himself and his interactions more forgettable, a nigh-imperceptible flaw introduced into a counterseal, some emotional manipulation, all while maintaining plausible deniability. At worst, he could be thought of as making an unfortunate mistake. The grey-silver-haired medic and spy was proud of his most recent work as he handed over the storage scroll.

An arm for a pair of eyes. Sasuke didn't have to know it was the same arm that had been lost in the first place.

[Outside of Konoha]

The jinchuriki, still in the fox's form, had wandered over to his dwelling place. It was completely untouched. After seeing what had happened in the town, it was almost surreal, seeing this building that looked exactly like he had left it. Not too surprising, to be sure; it was not in nor was it really important to Konoha proper.

By the end of the invasion, he had heard of the losses. The Hokage, first and foremost. He had used a jutsu that sacrificed himself in order to defeat dead Kages, including the First that the blond had been horribly beaten by. Some ANBU had watched the fight, apparently including Orochimaru himself, the Kazekage (who was undead), the Second Hokage (obviously also undead), and a member of that Akatsuki organization Jiraiya-sama had warned him about.

Now that he thought of it, he recognized that, when the Hokage had sent him to stop Suna's jinchuriki, the old man knew he was saying his final words to him. And the blond had set out to disobey his final orders in a fit of anger.

"Naruto, it's time," Tenzo-sensei informed him. They were far enough out that nobody else was around, so he had taken off his ANBU mask. Acknowledging his sensei, the jinchuriki returned to his thoughts as the fox's body was slowly returned to the seal array.

Casualties in the other jinchuriki's path were much lower than he thought they'd be. His own team, along with some others, had started immediately evacuating the path the enemy jinchuriki was taking once he transformed, and the majority had escaped. After that, his own assistance had helped free many trapped civilians and some trapped ninja that had been hit when loose debris collapsed after the initial pass.

Even Teuchi had survived, bad as he had looked at the time. He had learned that while going back to rescue trapped people from the rubble. Ayame was the one who had informed him, thanking him with tears in her eyes for his timely intervention. Saving Teuchi, that hadn't been something specific he had planned. That was just a spur of the moment thing for the blond. But, it was a victory.

Actually, the reverting blond wondered now if he may have been sent to the wrong place. After the First had been summoned away, the Hokage had sent him after Gaara, but...hadn't Gaara already nearly finished doing his damage? Sasuke had figured out that he was running away from _the transformed blond __himself,_ and actually was nearly out of town. But, then, he had turned to unleash that massive attack toward town, hadn't he?

The other jinchuriki, despite all the damage he'd done, hadn't been found. The ANBU that went below to search for him had come up with nothing. A team of trackers with an Inuzuka had tried to follow the scent, but it ended in that bunker, where he had seemingly vanished amidst the acrid stench therein. The jinchuriki had control of sand; he may have had a way to escape undetected. But, they didn't know. The largely-transformed blond wondered where his counterpart had gone, if he'd escaped.

Or who he was, even. He had hardly interacted with Gaara, now that he thought of it, aside from scaring the boy half to death in the forest to get some a scroll and the fight in the invasion. Did he have his own problems because of his tailed beast? Did he find a solution to them, maybe a better one than Jiraiya-sama had been working on for him? He may never know, now...

He hadn't seen his own team again until after the invasion was basically over. Even then, he'd only seen Sasuke. Even with his negative emotion sensing awry, he could tell the boy was a wreck with guilt. Then, he'd explained the bad news: Sakura had lost an arm, to that same Suna kunoichi she had fought in the preliminaries. Sasuke hadn't been able to find it again to help her, and now the promising kunoichi's career could very well be over, and her life drastically altered. And the jinchuriki himself? He hadn't been able to help them. Too busy fighting the undead Hokage.

The First Hokage had clearly been summoned to fight against himself, allowing the invasion to proceed. But, he hadn't been able to fight back, to stop him. It was his fight, and he lost, while fully transformed. He never would've guessed it could happen. If not for that, he would've been able to help earlier. Help the old man with Orochimaru. Help his Sakura with the Suna kunoichi. Help Konoha as a whole by stopping the enemy jinchuriki sooner.

He wondered. And he had to ask. "Tenzo-sensei," he began, his voice much closer to a human normal with the reversion partway complete, "if I had fought back harder, used more of the fox's power, maybe used it's tails, would the old man have survived?"

"No," his sensei answered immediately. "There were three undead Kages, and two were in the fight with our Hokage. I heard from the report that when they were destroyed, they quickly reassembled themselves. If not for the Hokage's sacrifice, they would've either followed Orochimaru back, leaving him with powerful weapons to strike Konoha with again in the future, to subdue even _you_, or they would've been left to rampage through town, until you were too tired to stop them."

"What...what if there was another way, another way to stop them?"

"What if there was? We didn't know it. We _still_ don't know it. We certainly wouldn't have had time to find it while they rampaged."

"I... I know that, but, what about-"

"Enough, Naruto," he said finally. "You can wonder forever about what might have happened, or what could have been done, if we had known something else, or done something else before we know what we know now. It's that same guilt you've shared with me and Kakashi-sempai before, just in a different form.

"We live our lives, we try to do as well as we can with what we have, and try to learn from our mistakes. If you're always stuck on what might've happened, on what you could've done if you knew something you didn't, you'll not notice when things go well, when good things happen because of what you _did_ do.

"You couldn't save everyone, but you _did_ save _many_ people. If that jinchuriki had been able to freely attack in town, or if the invaders hadn't been driven back by your appearance, there would've been more deaths."

"...You're right, Tenzo-sensei. Sorry for bringing these up so often."

"It's a hard problem, and a hard lesson to keep in mind."

In time, his sensei finished the jutsu. The blond noticed how exhausted he looked.

His sensei must've realized how he looked and sounded. "I'll be" (Huff.) "fine, Naruto. Just" (Huff.) "overdid it a bit, between the" (Huff.) "First Hokage and the" (Huff.) "other jinchuriki, plus helping" (Huff.) "with the rescue efforts afterwards." (Huff.) "Tomorrow, I should be fine."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then. Good night, sensei." He watched his sensei turn away while donning the cat-like ANBU mask, then start jumping away, back toward Konoha, toward home. Home... Maybe he could return soon...?

For now, though, he felt pretty tired himself. He went into the small building and lie down.

After a time, he caught a faint scent he recognized, besides the ANBU that had just left. That...that scent, it still wasn't supposed to be there, still following him. He tried to shut it out of his mind, but then he noticed another scent. A scent he had first encountered a bit over a month before, but had focused on much more today.

It smelled like Gaara. But...he wouldn't be here now, would he? He would've left, long ago. Staying here was basically suicide for the boy, because of himself. So, why did he vaguely smell Suna's jinchuriki here now?

It was unlikely. He figured he must've been hallucinating his scent, like he figured he'd been hallucinating Amaru's scent. But he had to check.

He got himself up, and left, following the scents in the dark, his eyes having adjusted awhile back. It was in the direction of Konoha. More specifically, the same direction Tenzo-sensei had headed. A chill suddenly ran across the boy's spine, and he started running faster.

He found the source of the scent, finally. It looked like a small patch of sand on the ground. Was this where Gaara had escaped from earlier? No, the scent had shown up recently. He should get Tenzo-sensei and-

Tenzo-sensei. His scent, it was here, too. It had _stopped_ here. His heart started beating faster.

The sand. He reached for it, reached _into_ it, and he could bury his arm completely through it. He brought some up. It smelled vaguely like his vanished sensei, as well as Gaara.

His sensei was gone, taken. Alive? Or dead?


End file.
